Apple Planning to Make A6 Processor at TSMC

Well that's to be expected. It seems like Apple is intent on further suing Samsung, so to be relying on Samsung only would spell disaster for them if Samsung ever decides to halt shipment.

TSCM seems to be new hope after the issue, and Samsung certainly will not stay silent lho

I wonder how Apple coming into the picture will change TSMC. Will they get better ... or worse?

Samsung will do anything in their power ? like sueing them ?

Only Apple been trying to sue everybodys' asses off: HTC, Samsung, etc.

No one's ever going to argue with you that shipping business overseas won't be cheaper. Don't have to start generalizing political parties and accuse them of ruining our economy.

Right, no one needs to generalize about it, there are plenty of specific examples of how the political party wars have ruined our economy.

ReggieRay, you troller you. Lets see how fast people can make this whole article a political battle instead. Ready...go!

waka waka

Yeah. We've got to stop people in power from appointing our senators and congresspeople. Oh, wait a minute, I think they are there by popular vote..

AMD already claimed A6 and A8

I bet the guys over at the Semiconductor division are pissed off at the guys in the Cell Phone division, since their "copying" of Apple (and pissing Apple off) is going to cost them $7.8 billion in yearly sales of components Apple buys from them.

Of course, whether Samsung really copied Apple is up for debate, however the bottom line isn't. Apple thinks they did and is acting accordingly, costing Samsung billions in sales and giving those billions to a competitor.

Just because they got voted in by the public does not mean they are intelligent, capable or have your best interests at heart.

The public don't vote for the CEO of Apple, IBM or Microsoft, is there anything more American than those 3 companies?

It's convenient to blame leftists and democrats for the loss of manufacturing in NA. The reasons unions started is because everyone wanted a reasonable share of a company's profit for their hard work. In principle that sounds pretty reasonable. The reality is the company's purpose is to make money, so it's cheaper to manufacture in a place where the employee costs less (Korea, Taiwan, China, etc). People love to blame the evil union, but if YOU were employed by x manufacturing company, I guarantee you would be screaming for top dollar, just as I'm sure you do at whatever employment you have right now. Because we all do this (demand top salary, demand cheapest goods), it's impossible to do both in the same country. In the past people were far more dedicated to "buying American" and willing to save up and pay more for a quality product that lasted a long time, with an excellent warranty and service. Now our true nature as greedy self-serving creatures has re-asserted itself on such a scale that there's no turning back.

Please note that quality products that last a long time, with excellent warranty and service also come from China, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, etc etc etc.

Apart from being "Made in the USA" what other factors come into play?
We have now discounted quality, service and price - what is left?

The problem is as soon as you start to say "Forget price, just buy American", you are already being slightly Communist, you really can't have it both ways.

If your country runs on a market economy, as soon as you hit the international scene they all do the same so you have to compete on a level playing field. Typical American workers demand a higher standard of living, higher pay, longer holidays, bigger pensions, cheap food, cheap gas, instant credit, dry cleaning, a hooker on speed dial and the god-given right to rule the world.

Face it, there is someone a few thousand miles away that is prepared to take a few percent less than you to get the business in a totally cut-throat global market economy. Either compete or die.

I'm sorry to jump on the Politics bandwagon, but,

Greed is what keeps manufacturing overseas. Business owners and executives are greedy and care only for themselves. On the other hand, workers who believe that menial labor somehow constitutes the right to exceptional wages and protections are out of their minds as well. WELCOME TO CAPITALISM AT IT'S BEST. The hard thing to weigh is this. If you want a fair and even distribution of wealth, go to a different country. If you want the opportunity to make yourself one of the powerful and elite: come to America. Don't blame bipartisanism and American democracy. Politicians are cut from the same cloth as the Elite business owners who care only for their own wealth and status.

It is human to strive to be better, It is American to strive to have more than anyone else. get over it.

... money talk's...

About the comment about leftists keeping chip manufacturers out of America. The OP should read up on comments Intel made in the last year complaining that the US doesn't subsidize chip manufacturing. Chip manufacturing is going strong in Asian countries because their government's do subsidize it. Something the Right in the US won't do, meaning US companies can't compete with the Asians.

What do you mean we can't have semiconductor plants in the US? We have plenty here in the US.

http://www.10stripe.com/featured/m [...] r-fabs.php

Typical tea party Republican. Spewing hate for the Democrats with a load of BS to back it up. I do not associate myself with a party because doing so is moronic as I'm an American not a Democrat or Republican.

@ericburnby

here's a funny thing, how many good semiconductor fabs do you think is out there they can make the A6 package with decent enough yields, why do you think Apple had to go to Samsung in the first place. TSMC is so damn good that AMD and nVidia is still singing their praise after the 32nm transition, but then again ive been told that the iPad/iPhone is magically and could probably work without a CPU anyways

Call me when something isn't made by TSMC. They make everything except Pentiums and vibrator motors.

Very poor choice of words. Privy pertains to knowledge, or information, not active involvement or partnership extending beyond that.

People have enough problems understanding English without online sites trying to get cute with words and then using them obtusely.

Jungleboogiemonster. Right on! LOL... good grief. I'm not a right winger or a left winger, but right wing rhetoric is the worst by a landslide. Most of the countries US companies off shore to are left leaning anyway. Subsidizing is the key. Those companies want low start up costs and cheap labor.

They won't halt shipment, that is illegal and would cause another suit. Samsung wants Apple's money and R&D. It's about making more money.

Apple wants to stop the blood loss and is going with a chip manufacturer who won't take their intellectual property and incorporate it into competing products... I have a friend who works on these cases currently. As much as everyone is making Apple out to be "evil" it's really Samsung who's done the injustice. Apple is also being sued for other things but it's how big business works... Don't like the sharks, get out of the water kiddies

Samsung actually has 2 massive fabs in Austin, TX.

"We well be destroyed by our greed and stupidity"
Someone said that, can you guys guess who? Also can you guys see how true it is starting to become? That goes for all!

I never would have thought that greed will become so extensive that someone would sue another for making a rectangle shaped phone because they made one also. Now how stupid ca someone become over money?(just an example from many others)

1. It's not as simple as "rectangle shaped phone". It's a bit more complicated than that.

2. You're brilliant and you designed something that no one else had thought of - you build a product using that design, which is wildly successful. In a few years another person comes and takes your idea without your permission and uses it to build a product that competes with yours, and because they didn't have to spend the money on R&D to make their own unique design they can sell it at a discounted price - How would you take that? Would you just brush it off knowing it's actually not legal?

3. Greed is not good, but Capitalism is what builds jobs. Samsung has plants in the US that pay US workers. Apple employs people in the US and produces a product that is making money for a US based company world wide.

4. You cannot blame Democrats for putting jobs overseas - Our quality of life is expensive, and people in China can make a product that is still expensive but it would cost us a lot more to build it here... This is what happens to all industrialized nations. It's happening in Europe, it happened in Japan (It's cheaper to build cars here, than to build them there and import, even with tariffs), it's happening in Korea - most manufacturing is moving to China and Taiwan. As China goes through it's own industrialization, this is going happen to them - God help us all =0

We have a lot of potential here (in the US) to get back on track - blame-storming isn't going to get us there. Politics aside - I like Apple - They were the underdog for years and worked hard to get where they are now - Today they are about to become Goliath means there is a David waiting in the wings with a stone...

Ok, getting off soapbox Thanks for taking the time to read - I'll go do code or somethin'

So if you were the first to design a "rec

Apple did not invent the rectangle bar touch screen phone. I just said it was stupid to sue someone for that, and that was just an example that i can remember, don't really read all these news. This is not the single law suit that has a dumb reason.

The rest about capitalism and other stuff don't come into my discussion.

Yes, if you invent anything, it should be yours to own, not others.

I wonder, what specks do these new A6 processors have? If apple would place a quad core in their new phone that would be something to brag again. Since i also heard about their patent for 3d screen more cores or let's say better graphics would be necessary. I have seen videos on LG optimus 3d and sometimes it lags in 3d.

@sundragon

exactly which IP are you referring to? last i recall Samsung was being sued because the galaxy phone looks similar to an iPhone (and if your classify looks as IP then i guess the conversation ends there), maybe it's those square icons but it sure as heck weren't the damn A6 chips because thats not even apple's to begin with, it's ARM of which Samsung shares a collective IP with because they manufacture the wafers for a variety of ARM licensees

Here's a link to the article - they copied everything down to the location of the phone button, icon, and color. The same goes for quite a bit of the interface. You can look up the legalese (warning it's not a light read) online elsewhere - but it's more than "A rectangular phone".

You mention the A6 chip:

The A5 chip is so far a better implementation of the ARM A9 core because of the better embedded PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU - look up the iPad's performance compared to current Android tablets that use the Tegra2 chipset and you'll see the benchmarks. Even when the competing chips over-clock they can't compete in games and 3D because of their less sophisticated GPU.

The A6 will be competing with Tegra3 and upcoming TI OMAP chips that will be used in Samsung's Android offerings. Giving them the specs ahead of time to develop the A6 chip would be like Ford handing GM the specs for their newest and greatest engine a year or two before it launches...

So, in this competitive world - would you hand your IP to a competitor that has already copied you or not? There are millions of dollars at stake, it's your millions invested in R&D and your business on the line, what would you do?

Interesting read, I can't afford to buy Apple products so not that relevant to me unless the dollar crashes with the current temper tantra of the political parties in the States.....