Semiconductors

Official: Samsung stole trade secrets from TSMC

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 26, 2015

Samsung lifted trade secrets from rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), the world's #1 independent semiconductor foundry, Taiwan's top court has ruled.

According to a report published Wednesday by Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes, the court has determined that Liang Mong-song, a former senior director of research and development at TSMC, revealed TSMC's trade secrets and patents related to its advanced FinFET process technology to Samsung Electronics.

The report makes no mention of Apple, but the connection couldn't be clearer: Samsung might have been able to leverage the stolen secrets to win orders for Apple's next-generation 'A9' processor. Prior reports have posited that both Samsung and TSMC got to build Apple's A9 chips on the advanced 14-nanometer FinFET process technology which uses entirely new three-dimensional transistors.

Breakthrough could bring 1,000 times faster flash storage with much longer lifespan to iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Chip makers Intel and Micron today announced a major breakthrough in memory process technology which promises to increase the performance of NAND flash chips by a factor of 1,000.

The name of this game-changing technology is 3D Xpoint, pronounced as “crosspoint”. Not only does it enable 1,000 times faster performance, but has up to 1,000X greater endurance than NAND flash and is 10X denser than conventional memory.

By comparison, today's solid state drives typically offer between a hundred to up to a thousand times faster seek times versus traditional hard drive technology. Just don't count on Intel's new ultra-fast flash storage appearing in the next iPhone because a claimed logic board for an 'iPhone 6s' shows 19-nanometer flash memory chips by Toshiba.

Volume production of Apple’s next-generation ‘A9’ processor for new iPhones has kicked off

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 16, 2015

Volume production of an Apple-designed next-generation “A9” chip, the engine that will power the next iPhone and iPad, has begun at facilities operated by Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest independent semiconductor foundry.

According to a report published Friday by DigiTimes, a semi-accurate Taiwanese trade publication, the two rivals get to share orders and both have now started volume production of the chips.

Supply chain sources interviewed by The Wall Street Journal estimate Apple's ordered a record 80 million units of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus units by the end of 2015.

Analysis of ‘iPhone 6s’ logic board suggests improved NFC, 16GB base model and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 3, 2015

A leaked logic board has already offered a valuable insight into some of the many hardware enhancements in Apple's upcoming 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus' refreshes. Thus far, we have learned about Qualcomm's new baseband modem which doubles LTE download speeds, a slightly thicker enclosure to accommodate Force Touch sensors and possibly a higher-resolution Retina screen.

9to5Mac has teamed up with semiconductor experts at Chipworks in an effort to identify other chips and components based on images of an alleged iPhone 6s motherboard.

Here are their findings.

Leaked iPhone 6s logic board shows Qualcomm MDM9635M chip for up to 300Mbps LTE speed

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 1, 2015

Apple's next iPhone should double LTE download speeds from a theoretical maximum of 150Mbps on the present-generation iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus up to 300Mbps on the next-generation 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus,' according to a purported logic board leaked by 9to5Mac.

A photo of the alleged 'iPhone 6s' logic board shows a chip identified as the MDM9635M module from Qualcomm, part of its 'Gobi' modem platform.

iPhone 6s rumors: supplier hints at 7000 Series aluminum body, TSMC building A9 chips

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 4, 2016

A new rumor from Asia suggests that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), one of the world's largest semiconductor foundries, is ready to kick off mass production of Apple's in-house designed 'A9' mobile processor for the new iPhones, tentatively called an 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus'.

At the same time, another rumor from Apple's supply chain has reaffirmed that 2015 iPhones will have a chassis made from 7000 Series aluminum, a custom alloy the Cupertino firm originally developed for the Apple Watch Sport.

TSMC establishing 10nm pilot line to build A10 chips for iPhone 7

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry, is apparently scheduled to finish its 10-nanometer pilot production line by the end of June, with Taiwanese media suggesting that the new facilities will churn out an Apple-designed ‘A10’ processor said to power an ‘iPhone 7’ and other iOS devices due in 2016.

Apple Watch’s 28nm application processor is fabbed by Samsung, S1 chip is full of surprises

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

At the heart of the Apple Watch is Apple's in-house designed 'S1’ component that literally puts an entire computer architecture onto a single chip — an industry term you're looking for is system-in-package (SiP) design.

A recent teardown analysis by ABI Research has managed to identify 512MB of RAM, an ARM-based CPU, a Broadcom Wi-Fi module, an accelerometer and gyroscope, along with a few other components, packed inside the S1.

Today, semiconductor experts over at Chipworks have updated their teardown of the S1 package with a few interesting tidbits related to the type of process technology used while revealing some rather unique design solutions making such small yet powerful package possible.

Here’s what Apple’s custom designed Apple Watch ‘S1’ chip packs in

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2016

The Apple Watch is driven by Apple's in-house designed system-in-package (SiP) processor, called S1. Laying flat in the bottom of the Watch casing, it integrates many subsystems into one remarkably compact module, essentially miniaturizing an entire computer architecture onto a single chip.

Because it's completely encapsulated in resin to protect the electronics, neither experienced teardown wizards over at iFixit nor semiconductor experts at Chipworks were able to take a detailed look at the S1 innards without basically destroying the package.

Thankfully, ABI Research saw to that.

Thursday, the research firm has published its teardown analysis which delves into the S1 to identify a number of individual components that make up the SiP. Here's what they found.

Rumor: TSMC building iPhone 6s chips, $400-$500 iPhone 6c to become new entry-level model

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 26, 2015

TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited, is expected to remain the major supplier of Apple's in-house designed processors for the upcoming iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

In addition, the world's largest independent semiconductor foundry is said to supply 20-nanomenter chips for an upcoming iPhone 6c model, expected to arrive as Apple's new entry-level iPhone with a price tag between $400 and $500.

An Apple-designed system-on-a-chip for the next-generation iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models should be called the 'A9' and will be built on TSMC's 16-nanometer FinFET process technology, industry sources told DigiTimes.

Apple’s presence in Israel growing to expand in-house chip design capabilities

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 26, 2015

Apple's focus on designing iPhone and iPad processors in-house is reportedly expanding with news that CEO Tim Cook's visit to Israel this week is linked to efforts to increase its own chip design prowess, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Cook earlier in the week met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

He met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and is expected to meet with former President Shimon Peres later this week. The newspaper added that Apple' hired most of the Israeli employees of a chip-design division that Texas Instruments shut down in 2013 in Ra’anana, some 10 miles north of Tel-Aviv.

Samsung Galaxy S6 won’t be using Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip due to overheating

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 4, 2016

News broke today that Samsung's upcoming flagship, the fabled Galaxy S6, won't be using Qualcomm's new mobile system-on-a-chip, the Snapdragon 810.

As Re/code noted, the revelation came indirectly, via Qualcomm's earnings call today, as the firm had to tell investors “a large customer's flagship device” won't be shipping with the Snapdragon 810 inside.

Lost business has forced Qualcomm to cut its outlook for the fiscal year slightly. The semiconductor maker did not say which client, and why, has dropped the Snapdragon 810.

However, a week ago Bloomberg learned that Samsung had opted to drop the 810 from its upcoming flagship due to overheating problems.