Apple A6 Chip in Early Production Stages at TSMC

Apple is such a whore. They sue Samsung and drop them from making any chips for the apple. If I was TSMC I wouldn't get too comfortable.

Nvidia's Tegra 2 is so far behind Power VR's SGX543 series Kal-El needs to great just to make up for lost ground on the older technology let alone trying to compete against the A6. I just wish Google with its Android OS would ditch Nvidia's Tegra 2 and go with the hugely superior Power VR solution.

Huh, that's why TSMC ditched the 32nm node, or am I mistaken in that that was only a GPU node?

Apple will sue TSMC eventually for breaking patent rights..

I wouldn't be suprised if we see Intel be the next target. Apples is filing patents for the MacBook Air and very soon could start suing Intel cause they want to help introduce Ultrabooks for the PC manufacturers.

Isn't it kind of late to start early production of A6 now, when the next iPhone is set to launch October?

Apple is one of the companies behind INTEL's ultrabook project, if not the only one right now. But I imagine INTEL wants more clients aboard.

Looks like the 28nm TSMC process is all good, so why no word yet on the next gen graphics cards ??

Yield rates are probably still low compared to larger, but more mature processes.

I would love to see "Crapple" suing Intel for patent violation, only to get real butthurt by Intel. These patent allegation are nothing more than dramatic soap operas that in the end the she... I mean the customers gets the worst end. It would be much simpler if "all" of us boycott Apple into start acting like a well civilized corporation, I mean no greedy-capitalistic behavior, Or else: no more money for its products.

Next iPhone gets the A5 chip. This A6 is for the generation AFTER that, likely debuting in the next iPad first given its larger size and battery, it can better handle heat dissipation and power draw, which are much more difficult engineering issues to deal with when you get into the smaller form of the iPhone.

And that certainly wouldn't surprise me. Apple has a great business model (obviously because they make BOAT loads of cash) and I like some of their products, namely mac os (I don't use it, but a lot of the features are very nice) but this kind of shit really pisses me off. They have so much power it is ridiculous, and their followers remind me of lemmings, they'd follow them to the ends of the earth. Anything that has an Apple branding on it deserves complete worship and all other products are horribly designed because Steve Jobs didn't oversee production. Complete BS

(and I know people like this lol, it's a PRODUCT people. We're just dollars and cents to them, pick the one you like best, no need to argue over which mobile phone operating system is superior, give me a break. It amazes me how people can adopt consumer products as a part of their identity)

TSMC has nothing to worry about. Unless they want to start making products that copy Apple.

I'll say it again: I bet the person in charge of Samsung's Electronics division is pissed at whoever is in charge of the phone/tablet division for causing them to lose $7.8 billion in sales because they couldn't come up with their own designs.

There is nothing wrong with having a little pride in what you own ;P

It's our differences in tastes that make us unique no matter if you hate or love a product line with a passion.

Good for competition... So Apple can check how its products will perform through another company & also it gives other companies the chance for stable income for a certain contract time period.

I don't care if Apple had a 24 core phone with 3 day battery life. I wouldn't buy it anyways.

I expect the real reason we may see it in the next iPad first would simply be product cycles. I wouldn't expect power draw and heat dissipation to be the main concerns as they are moving to a more efficient manufacturing process (28nm). They just need to get the yield down to an acceptable level, and hopefully it will be ready in time for the retina display iPad. Certainly before iPhone 6 emerges.

Awesome!

A6 for the 2012 iPhone 6 and Ipad 3 revamps?

Anyway, that 28nm process A6 sounds sweet...
Powerful yet sipping power!

Power VR -> crappola

Wow pass me whatever you're smoking, or back up your statements with facts and quit trolling.

Tegra 2 in the Xoom, running 35% higher pixels than iPad 2 performs roughly half as fast. The Xoom is running a middle or the road Tegra2 chip @333mhz, top end is 400mhz. The iPad 2 is running the most powerful chip PowerVR makes. If you had a top end Tegra2 alongside a top end PowerVR chip at the same resolutions they would perform on par with each other.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4216 [...] chmarked/2

For an oranges to oranges comparison of a middle of the road Tegra2 vs a middle of the road PowerVR 540 check out the link below.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4144 [...] artphone/8

Back to the article. The iPad 3 will most likely be coming out q1 2012 according to the WSJ . If this CPU won't even be starting production until q1 2012, there is no way they could fab enough chips for the next iPad in time for release. Think ipad 4, iphone 6.

WSJ Article - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10 [...] 29628.html

AMD should sue!!!!!

I hope it works out and pushes more powerful phones. I use a mac pro, but I'm not a fanboy, I got it in 2008, and then it was the cheapest workstation of its caliber you could buy. 2800 dollars for dual 2.8hz xeons, mine are running at 3.3 and I'm still happy with it.

lol I wouldnt let my guard down if I were TSMC. That 28nm process sounds sweet, but just sign the contract and let the suing wars begin, apple cant be trusted at all.

good ol' marcus yam and his apple news....