Based on the way things have been progressing, it is only natural that come 2016 we can look forward to Apple’s iPhone 7. This model will not only represent a change in terms of design, but also a change in hardware and what we can only assume will include a brand new SoC in the form of the A10.
Now there have been rumors in the past that suggests that TSMC will be the one solely in charge of manufacturing the A10, and now new reports have pretty much corroborated the earlier claims. This is thanks to an investor’s note by HSBC analysts Steven Pelayo and Lionel Lin as obtained by the folks at AppleInsider.
At the moment what we have heard about the A10 is that it could be a six-core chipset. Right now Apple’s chipsets are dual-core so for Apple to make the leap to six-cores would be a huge jump. There is also talk about how the A10 could be built on the 16nm process which is more efficient and will allow the chipsets to perform better even without adding more cores.
The current A9 chipset is made by both TSMC and Samsung. For a while there was some controversy regarding the chipsets as those made by TSMC were found to have better battery life than the one made by Samsung. Technically this is true but real-world testing has since found the difference to be negligible.