Semiconductors

Samsung allegedly ups Apple chip prices by 20 percent

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 12, 2012

Samsung Electronics, which manufactures Apple-designed chips for iPads and iPhones exclusively at its Austin, Texas facility, has reportedly hit the iPhone maker with a material 20 percent price hike. Unsurprisingly, per an unnamed person allegedly familiar with negotiations between the two companies, this price increase is only aimed at Apple and not other Samsung clients. Apple up until recently used to account for as much as 8.8 percent of Samsung's revenue. It's been estimated that Apple ordered 130 million iPhone and iPad chips from Samsung Electronics in 2011 and more than 200 million units this year. The two frenemies have allegedly started to reflect the new supply price recently...

Samsung seen gradually losing Apple chip orders

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 7, 2012

Apple, which up until recently was responsible for nearly nine percent of Samsung's revenue in parts orders, is rumored to be gradually taking its lucrative mobile chip contract away from Samsung, as previously speculated.

A new report out of Asia tells us the South Korean conglomerate is likely to delay construction of a new logic fabrication facility over fear that it will no longer make Apple's in-house designed processors for iPhones, iPads and iPods on an exclusive basis.

If this is true, then Apple has already contracted another founry to produce the chips, most likely Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)...

Apple’s mobile graphics provider Imagination is buying MIPS

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2012

Imagination Technologies, a British-based mobile graphics provider, will buy MIPS, a Sunnyvale, California-headquartered semiconductor design company. The transaction, apparently worth a cool $60 million in cash, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013. It reportedly includes 82 patents related to the MIPS processor architecture.

This development is interesting knowing that both Apple and Intel have ownership stakes in Imagination, whose PowerVR graphics technology powers Apple's mobile chips used inside iPhones, iPads and iPods...

Bloomberg: Apple could drop Intel on Macs in 2017

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 5, 2012

When Apple CEO Tim Cook last week fired abrasive iOS chief Scott Forstall, he also appointed the company's un-retired hardware engineering boss Bob Mansfield as the leader of the new Technologies group, which combines all of Apple's wireless and semiconductor teams. And in an email to employees announcing the management changes, Cook hinted that Technologies "have some very ambitious plans". But what could these plans be, apart from designing new processors for iOS devices, which is what Mansfield and his team have been doing for years now?

You're not thinking big enough. How about a transition away from Intel processors across the Mac lineup? But why on Earth engage in such a risky brain transplant? Aren't the chip giant's processors good enough for Macs? If "people familiar with the company’s research" are correct, Apple is secretly (well, not anymore) been seeking ways to one day take the processors it designed in-house for the iOS product family and put them inside Macs...

4th gen iPad’s A6X chip runs quad-core PowerVR SGX 554MP4 graphics

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 24, 2016

Apple introduced the new A6X with the fourth-generation iPad on October 23. It's an improved version of the A6 silicon powering the iPhone 5 by increasing clock frequency for the CPU (1.5GHz) and GPU (500MHz) part in order to achieve Apple's claim of twice the CPU and GPU performance.

Though the A6X still runs two ARM Cortex-A15 cores with a heavily customized, Apple's own ARMv7 based processor design (called Swift), the company has improved graphics performance compared to the A6's three PowerVR-based GPU cores by moving to a newer GPU core: the PowerVR SGX 554 from UK's fabless semiconductor maker Imagination Technologies, where Apple has an ownership stake...

Apple seeking silicon wizards as it preps to fully customize A7 chip for 2013 iOS devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Speedier, smaller and even more power-efficient mobile chip designs are already in the works for future iOS devices so it comes as little surprise that Apple remains on a hiring spree, seeking talented semiconductor experts left and right.

As you know, Apple's current system-on-a-chip (SoC) modules found inside iPhones, iPods and iPads typically pack in several processing and graphic cores, in addition to the memory controller, RAM and the essential control logic - all onto a single piece of silicon die.

A new job posting reveals Apple is looking for an "SoC Modelling Architect / Lead" who will be tasked with managing its in-house team which designs next-generation processors for iOS devices...

The iPhone 5’s A6 processor can dynamically vary its clock speed for performance

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

The A6 chip which debuted on the iPhone 5 earlier this month can do some pretty clever tricks, stemming from a heavily customized ARMv7 design. Benchmark data suggests that the A6 can dynamically overclock itself to up to 1.3GHz and downclock to just 500MHz, depending on workload.

This is nothing new in chip design, of course (just ask Nvidia or Qualcomm). But given that Apple designs its chips in-house based on ARM and Imagination Technologies blueprints, it shows just how far along Cupertino is versus companies that use off-the-shelf chips which are not as power or performance-efficient as the A6...

Samsung snaps up UK’s fabless chip maker CSR to better compete with Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 4, 2018

Adamant to strengthen its portfolio of wireless patents (that seem to be all the rage these days) and help differentiate its smartphone and mobile chip businesses, Samsung ponied up $310 million for the mobile business of Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) PLC, based out in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

With this transaction due for completion by the fourth quarter this year, Samsung will control CSR's patents related to Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS and obtain interesting handset technology that could help differentiate its flagship smartphones.

Samsung is of course embroiled in patent fights with Apple in courts across the world. At the same time, the company dedicates substantial resources to fabbing mobile chips found inside Apple's iOS devices.

Samsung appears keen on taking advantage of CSR's research and development capability as it looks to improve its own mobile chips, possibly leading to unique hardware features down the road...