Apple’s A9 SoC Apparently Comes In Two Different Sizes

Prior to the launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, it had been speculated that the chipsets used in the phones could be made by Samsung and TSMC. Turns out the rumors were right, and interestingly enough it also seems that both the sizes of the chipsets have been found to be different, as discovered by the folks at Chipworks.

As you can see in the image above, it has been found that the TSMC version of the A9 is about 10% larger than the one made by Samsung. What does this mean? So far based on testing there has not been any discrepancies but presumably Samsung’s smaller die size is built using a process, and that process could have resulted in a more efficient version compared to TSMC’s build.

Apple typically has various manufacturers lined up for its components. However previously it has been noted that in some cases, some manufacturer’s components do outperform their competitors. As 9to5Mac points out, Samsung and Toshiba have both provided SSDs in Apple’s MacBooks, although Samsung’s SSDs have been found to perform better.

Another example would be Samsung and LG who have provided displays for Apple’s products, with Samsung’s displays typically offering better quality than the latter. However like we said there does not appear to be any reported discrepancies so far in terms of performance, but the folks at Chipworks are investigating if there are any potential differences between manufacturers and die size.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, SoC