iPhone 6 A8 Processor Not Made By Samsung

All the nasty back and forth between Apple and Samsung — this was probably bound to be the result. After a long run of providing processors to Apple for the iPhone, Samsung has been replaced. Further teardown results show that Apple has a new manufacturing partner for the A8.

After the iFixit teardown ended, Chipworks went to work on their own project: finding out who makes the various components for the iPhone 6. Their post is an interesting read, but highlights that Samsung didn't make the A8 processor. Apple's new partner is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

The A8 processor is smaller, and has twice the transistors on-board. The A7 was a 28nm chip with 1 billion transistors. The A8 is 20nm with 2 billion.

Samsung is in dire financial straits as-is, and not providing the processor for one of the most hotly anticipated smartphones of the last few years is going to hurt quite a bit.

Smaller and with more transistors, Apple says the A8 is a remarkable improvement over the A7. According to them, graphics performance jumped 50%, while overall CPU numbers were up around 25%.

It's not known if Apple just found a better deal with TSMC, or their other issues with Samsung led them to pull away. Either way, people aren't lining up on streets all over the globe to buy a device with a Samsung component inside.

Source: Chipworks

Via: 9to5Mac