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TSMC to Make Most Apple A9 Chips, Samsung Kept as Backup: Report

TSMC to Make Most Apple A9 Chips, Samsung Kept as Backup: Report

By Robin Sinha | Updated: 31 December 2014 19:29 IST

While earlier this month Samsung reportedly commenced production of Apple A9 chips, a new report now indicates the South Korean firm as the backup with TSMC being the major chip provider.

The report coming out of Taiwan states that Apple preferred TSMC to Samsung because the former can produce more chips. "The two companies' technological capabilities are similar, so the key factor will be whose mass-production yield is better," said Chris Hung, Director of MIC, a consultancy, to reporters (via Taipei Times).

Hung also said that though Samsung also makes advanced 20nm chips, the company's yields are not satisfactory. "However, as Apple tends to spread the risks, it is likely that the winning supplier of A9 [TSMC] will not take all the orders," he added.

TSMC was also said to have been the main supplier of A8 and A8X chips, which were used in Apple's latest iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and iPad Air 2 devices.

Couple of weeks before, Samsung was said to have started producing chips using the 14nm process, which reportedly made the A9 chips 20 percent more powerful while consuming 35 percent less battery life from the device, as per Phonearena. The report added that the production was taking place in Samsung's Austin plant. However, the firm did not confirm the speculations. "We cannot confirm whether we received orders from Apple or at which plant it will be produced," said officials.

Last month, a report contrarily claimed that Samsung will produce APs for the iPhone and iPad devices from next year. It even claimed that from 2016, the company would supply 80 percent of APs used in Apple devices, while the rest would be handled by TSMC.

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