Given Apple and Samsung’s relationship, many had speculated that for the A8 processor that Apple could be turning to TSMC to help manufacture the chips as opposed to Samsung, who used to be Apple’s go-to manufacturer for their A-series chipsets. Well thanks to the folks at Chipworks, it looks like the rumors were true after all.
Chipworks has found that TSMC was indeed the manufacturer of the A8 chipset used inside the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. TSMC is said to have used a 20nm CMOS process to help fabricate the A8 SoC, and that the A8’s contacted gate pitch of around 90nm is consistent with Qualcomm’s MDM9235, which is another chip fabricated by the company.
The report also found an NFC chip in the iPhone that was made by NXP way back in 2012. However if you were thinking that Apple is using old technology, apparently this is a chip designed by NXP that was made exclusively for Apple, which means that Apple had plans for NFC since at least 2012.
That being said, while Apple could have turned away from Samsung for the production of the A8 chipset, word has it that Apple could be returning to Samsung again in 2015 for the fabrication of the A9 chipset which will most likely make their way into the next-generation iPhones.
