Andre Yoskowitz
30 Jun 2013 18:37
According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has signed a new deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. for component supplies, helping the company somewhat break its dependency on bitter rival Samsung.
The first chips for the joint venture will reach production lines in early 2014.
Apple's agreement will have TSMC building next-generation 20nm A-series SoCs for the iPhone and iPad. Samsung will remain the main supplier of the chip for 2013.
Sources claim the deal was years in the making, but TSMC was "unable to manufacture silicon up to the speed and power standards required by Apple." That hurdle has now been jumped.
In their ongoing effort to move away from Samsung, who for a time was their exclusive A-series processor maker (among other components), the company has signed display deals with LG and Sharp and NAND memory deals with Toshiba.