More Reports of TSMC Beginning Trial Production of A6 Chip for 2012 Launch
Taiwan Economic News reports that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has indeed begun trial production of Apple's next-generation A6 system-on-a-chip, with the design set to be "publicly unveiled" in the second quarter of 2012 at the earliest. The A6 is expected to power Apple's iOS devices scheduled for release next year.Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC), the world’s largest semiconductor foundry by market shares now, has allegedly started trial production of the A6 processor in cooperation with Apple Inc., with the production design to be taped out in the first quarter of next year and scheduled to be publicly unveiled in the second quarter at the earliest, according to industry sources.According to the report, TSMC has been capable of and interested in working with Apple on chip production for some time, but has only recently had the production capacity available to open up to a deal.
Accordingly, TSMC has applied its newest 28-nanometer process and 3D stacking technologies to produce the next-generation processor A6, which is based on the ARM architecture and will undergo TSMC’s cutting-edge silicon interposer and bump on trace (BOT) methodologies.
Today's report essentially repeats a Reuters article from nearly one month ago claiming that TSMC had begun trial production on the new chip as Apple seeks to shift away from Samsung, which has been the manufacturer for Apple's custom ARM-based chip.
Rumors have consistently pointed to a 2012 release for the A6 chip, although the new claim of availability in the "second quarter at the earliest" would appear to force a tight timeline for Apple to push out an iPad based on the new chip in March or April as it has the past two years. Apple has been rumored to be releasing updated or additional iPad models later this year, and while those models would obviously not be running on the A6 chip, they could buy Apple some time to get the A6 up and running in 2012's models.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
24 months ago
I'm glad I'm holding out for the iphone 6. iPhone 5 adopters are going to get burned!
Haha. Sucker. I'm holding out for the iPhone 7. Then you iPhone 6 early adopters will really be regretting it.
24 months ago
A bit off topic, but I just have to say, that is truly an awful logo. Every time there's an article about TSMC I cringe when I see it.
24 months ago
I'm glad I'm holding out for the iphone 6. iPhone 5 adopters are going to get burned!
That's why it's best to wait for the iPhone (X + 1), because the iPhone X adopters always get burned.
I've heard the iPhone (X + 1) comes out (current year + 1) from whenever one wants to think about buying the next iPhone. Happy waiting!
24 months ago
This should put an end to early iPad 3 rumors.
:mad:
Your avatar made me punch my screen...:(
24 months ago
Any info, on whether it will be a quad core or not?
Quad-core? :cool:
Could be more. If they used the Cortex A15 (Most likely) it could be up to 8 cores over 2 clusters. They could also break the 2 GHz mark with the iPad 3.
I doubt it. If it were an A15 design, it would likely be first on market, by several months.
It will be a 28nm die shrink of A5 that focuses on power savings to compensate for the LTE chip it is likely to include. Then A7 will be a cortex A15 design.
24 months ago
i never buy nothing from a company with that logo.
I'll take their logo over your grammar. ;-)
24 months ago
Apple likes to have multiple suppliers for their components. That way there is no single point of failure, and Apple can start bidding wars between suppliers. As in "Brand X can make these parts for 52.3 cents each in lots of 1 million. If you can't match that, we'll take our business elsewhere..." So the TSMC deal makes perfect sense.
There is, of course, the small matter of legal action against Samsung. Which may or may not affect Apple and Samsung's business relationship.
So what about Intel? Apple supposedly served notice to Intel, warning them that if they didn't reduce the power consumption of their mobile x86 SoCs that they'd go elsewhere. Intel's response was to spew $300 million into the Wintel community in an attempt to bribe them into copying the MacBook Air. Irrational, short-sighted, and reeking of desperation. Much better to spend the $300 actually improving their own product and/or process.
Then what will Apple do if Intel ignores their demands? Who could they go to? Well, there's always AMD. They are the second largest maker of x86-compatible chips and they bought ATI in 2006. And guess what. Their market cap is only $4.6 billion. Apple could either acquire a majority of their stock or buy them outright. Then Apple could use their engineering talent to massage the AMD chips for lower power consumption.
Apple acquiring AMD is a long shot. Especially considering that it is also possible that Apple could be planning to migrate some or all of their Mac lines to ARM-based chips. That would take years, considering how long it took for Adobe to migrate their professional suites from OS 9 to OS X and Cocoa. But I'm sure Apple could sell millions of MacBook Airs even if they don't run Adobe bloatware.
There is, of course, the small matter of legal action against Samsung. Which may or may not affect Apple and Samsung's business relationship.
So what about Intel? Apple supposedly served notice to Intel, warning them that if they didn't reduce the power consumption of their mobile x86 SoCs that they'd go elsewhere. Intel's response was to spew $300 million into the Wintel community in an attempt to bribe them into copying the MacBook Air. Irrational, short-sighted, and reeking of desperation. Much better to spend the $300 actually improving their own product and/or process.
Then what will Apple do if Intel ignores their demands? Who could they go to? Well, there's always AMD. They are the second largest maker of x86-compatible chips and they bought ATI in 2006. And guess what. Their market cap is only $4.6 billion. Apple could either acquire a majority of their stock or buy them outright. Then Apple could use their engineering talent to massage the AMD chips for lower power consumption.
Apple acquiring AMD is a long shot. Especially considering that it is also possible that Apple could be planning to migrate some or all of their Mac lines to ARM-based chips. That would take years, considering how long it took for Adobe to migrate their professional suites from OS 9 to OS X and Cocoa. But I'm sure Apple could sell millions of MacBook Airs even if they don't run Adobe bloatware.
24 months ago
Could be more. If they used the Cortex A15 (Most likely) it could be up to 8 cores over 2 clusters. They could also break the 2 GHz mark with the iPad 3.
Why would they want to run anything that fast? Apple is mainly interested in battery life with passable performance. The fact that they go shun Flash on the platform illustrates that.
24 months ago
A bit off topic, but I just have to say, that is truly an awful logo. Every time there's an article about TSMC I cringe when I see it.
While not really a creative logo, it is just a silicon wafer with dies scored in it and a few of the dies colored black. It's OK; but not very innovative or even interesting. But I've seen much worse logos.
[ Read All Comments ]
Just a couple of weeks after rebuilding its iPad app as a universal app, Shazam has released another update, this time adding a music discovery feature called Pulse, a new-look tab bar, and more.
...
Following the launch of the Jony Ive-led streamlining of the iOS user interface, the designer himself has seen his job title receive a redesign as well. Ive is now the Senior Vice President of Design...
In Apple's ongoing antitrust case with the Department of Justice, Apple's SVP of internet software and services Eddy Cue once again took the stand today, where he revealed several small...
Firaxis Games' XCOM: Enemy Unknown will hit the App Store on Thursday, June 20. The title, which was released for the Mac in April, is a re-imagined version of the classic 1994 game X-Com: UFO...
Skype has rolled out its new video messaging service, originally introduced as a beta back in February, to all users. Previously, Skype users could only use 20 messages per month without subscribing...
According to TechCrunch, Facebook will unveil a new video capture addition for Instagram at a June 20th press event. Instagram's video capabilities are said to be similar to Twitter's Vine,...
During Apple's WWDC keynote, the company revealed that it would begin supporting MFi (Made for iPhone) certified gaming controllers. Since then, new details have emerged, suggesting that Apple is...
AT&T has announced that it is pushing out a software update to bring Wireless Emergency Alerts to its U.S. customers that use an iPhone 4S or an iPhone 5. Wireless Emergency Alerts are part of a...
