With the tension between Apple and Samsung, there has been a lot of rumors suggesting that Apple might be dropping Samsung as a chip manufacturer and will go with TSMC for their chip manufacturing needs. Word has it that supposedly TSMC’s production of Apple’s chips are expected to kick off late 2013 or early 2014, but now new rumors are saying that the schedule has been moved up and that TSMC could begin production as soon as the second quarter of 2013. TSMC is also rumored to be building chips for Apple using the 28 nanometer process, which seems to go against earlier reports that suggested that Apple might be interested in 20nm chips.
This also seems to go against a rumor a little over a week ago where it was suggested that Apple and Intel have entered into a partnership, and that Intel would build Apple’s chips only if Apple were to incorporate Intel’s chips into future Apple products. In any case this is merely a rumor at this point in time, so we suggest you take it with a grain of salt for now. Hopefully either TSMC or Intel will be capable of producing chips according to Apple’s designs in a timely manner and that future iOS products will not be delayed because of it.
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