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Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/12/apple_to_drop_samsung_for_tsmc/

Apple to drop chip-baking partnership with Samsung?

TSMC said to forge Apple's next-gen 20nm, quad-core ARM chips

By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco

Posted in Hardware, 12th October 2012 18:31 GMT

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Apple is planning to shift production of its ARM-based microprocessors from Samsung to the Taiwanese chip-baking giant TSMC [1] as early as next year, according to a report [2] by the China Economic News Service (CENS).

The report, spotted by MacRumors [3], cites CitiGroup Global Markets analyst J.T. Hsu as saying that TSMC will be Apple's sole supplier of 20nm quad-core processors, with volume production to begin in the fourth quarter of 2013. He also noted that Apple began its 20nm chip-verfication process at TSMC in August of this year.

Hsu told CENS that the future quad-core chips were intended for Apple's "iPad, iTV and even Macbook," turning up the heat on two rumors that have been simmering for months: that Apple is planning a move into the television market [4], and that an ARM-based MacBook is in the works [5].

The television rumor has cooled in recent months, and the ARM-based MacBook rumor remains just that – a rumor – but Hsu's report of forthcoming quad-core Apple processors may provide one explanation as to why both of those projects have yet to see the light of day: Apple may be waiting until it can provide them with more oomph than it can squeeze from its current 32nm dual-core A6 processor, found in the iPhone 5, and its 45nm dual-core A5X, which powers the current iPad. Both are provided to Apple by Samsung.

When The Reg reported [6] on Thursday that Apple had hired top Samsung microprocessor architect Jim Mergard to be one of Cupertino's growing chip-design team, we speculated that the growing bad blood between the Korean electronics giant and Cupertino might soon result in Apple taking its chip fabrication – currently done by Samsung – off to another foundry, possibly TSMC.

If Hsu is correct, it will turn out that we were right – although making that prediction was not exactly an act of perspicacious genius. ®