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Samsung Electronics will return to producing chips for Apple in next year's iPhone lineup, according to a new report today by The Korea Herald. Before, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company held the sole supplier responsibility of providing Apple's A10 chip in the iPhone 7, as well as the A11 chip in the upcoming iPhone 8, but now today's report references a "crucial deal" made between Samsung Electronics co-CEO Kwon Oh-hyun and Apple during a visit to Cupertino last month.

According to the report, Samsung managed to close the deal because of the company's decision to purchase equipment solely intended for 7-nanometer chip fabrication for iPhone devices. This move, as well as using Samsung's "close ties on OLED," convinced Apple to reintroduce the supplier into the iPhone chip supply chain. Although details remain vague, The Korea Herald's sources said that Samsung would "share some parts" of the 2018 iPhone orders that have been previously monopolized by TSMC.

applea10fusionprocessor.jpg
According to news reports on July 18, Samsung recently purchased extreme ultra violet lithography machines, the most advanced chip manufacturing equipment, to produce seven-nanometer mobile processors solely for iPhone.

"The CEO could persuade Apple's top brass taking advantage of their close ties on OLED," said an industry source. Samsung, the world's largest mobile OLED maker with a whopping 95 percent market share, is the sole OLED supplier for the upcoming iPhone.
In 2015, Apple dual-sourced the A9 chip from both TSMC and Samsung for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, leading to some blowback from consumers when battery tests were performed and saw the TSMC chips outperform those made by Samsung. To avoid that issue again, and thanks to TSMC's aggressive moves to adopt smaller and more energy efficient manufacturing processes, Apple chose the company as the sole supplier of the A10 and A11 chips.

Now, Samsung is said to be preparing tests for its own chip processing machines, and next plans to "seek final approval from Apple for the chip production" for what will presumably be called the A12 chip. As the sole OLED supplier for the 2017 iPhone, Samsung Display's deal with Apple has placed the manufacturer with providing between 70 and 92 million OLED displays for the upcoming iPhone 8. Apple is predicted to shift to OLED-only iPhone production as soon as 2018 or 2019.

Article Link: Samsung Rumored to Return to iPhone Chip Production in 2018
 

Glideslope

macrumors 604
Dec 7, 2007
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The Adirondacks.
Any rumors who the 7nm fab they invested in is? I know Global Foundries skipped the 10nm node, and has been working on 7nm intensely (installing new extreme ultra violet lithography tools.) Perhaps it's simply their Austin Fab, or none of the above? :apple:
 

Bacillus

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Jun 25, 2009
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Well happy hiking.
Let the best company in the world supply the best camera, screens, headphone jacks, lightning connectors and whatever if it can run iOS.
And Eddy Cue will take care of the server side
(NOT)
 

tipoo

macrumors 6502a
Jan 5, 2017
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So hopefully this means Glofo (who shares fab parity with Samsung) won't be so far behind on fabs anymore. It was really hurting AMDs efficiency with their wafer agreement with Glofo.
 

WatchFromAfar

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I don't get the hatred for Samsung that Apple fanboys have. Apple has two suppliers for their critical items. Flash memory: Toshiba and Samsung, Screens LG & Samsung: Processor TSMC or Samsung. Get this, your iPhone could be rockin' a Samsung screen, a Samsung processor and running off Samsung memory. Sounds like a Samsung phone to me....
 

Xgm541

macrumors 65816
May 3, 2011
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I don't get the hatred for Samsung that Apple fanboys have. Apple has two suppliers for their critical items. Flash memory: Toshiba and Samsung, Screens LG & Samsung: Processor TSMC or Samsung. Get this, your iPhone could be rockin' a Samsung screen, a Samsung processor and running off Samsung memory. Sounds like a Samsung phone to me....
No, the components are developed by Apple. Samsung just has the tools to be able to create them in the quantity apple requires.

Also, diversification of component suppliers is beneficial to apple, but not so much to the consumer.
 

WatchFromAfar

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Well played, genially laughed!!
[doublepost=1500384669][/doublepost]
No, the components are developed by Apple. Samsung just has the tools to be able to create them in the quantity apple requires.

Also, diversification of component suppliers is beneficial to apple, but not so much to the consumer.
What components? Are these physical components? Because Apple produces sweet fa. Apple has the reference design for the A-series processors, but there made by other people (companies) And by the way the A series processors was based on a design from a little known company from the UK called Acorn.
 
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bobob

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Jan 11, 2008
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Juicy Box

macrumors 604
Sep 23, 2014
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I don't get the hatred for Samsung that Apple fanboys have. Apple has two suppliers for their critical items. Flash memory: Toshiba and Samsung, Screens LG & Samsung: Processor TSMC or Samsung. Get this, your iPhone could be rockin' a Samsung screen, a Samsung processor and running off Samsung memory. Sounds like a Samsung phone to me....

I am not sure there is that much hate for Samsung. During the last Chip-gate, at first there were many, many comments on this forum of people stating they wanted Samsung over TSMC. This was before it was discovered that TSMC had slightly better performance over the Samsung chip.

Sounds like a Samsung phone to me....
But, it isn't designed by Samsung.
 
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StevieD100

macrumors 6502a
Jan 18, 2014
732
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Living Dangerously in Retirement
I don't get the hatred for Samsung that Apple fanboys have. Apple has two suppliers for their critical items. Flash memory: Toshiba and Samsung, Screens LG & Samsung: Processor TSMC or Samsung. Get this, your iPhone could be rockin' a Samsung screen, a Samsung processor and running off Samsung memory. Sounds like a Samsung phone to me....
At one place I worked, we had a big problem with Samsung 1TB SATA Disks. 30+ of them failed inside 3 months. Took us ages to get resolved. No one would admit 1) there was a problem or 2) Who's fault it was . The company resolved not to buy anything from Samsung again mainly because of the almost total lack of customer support.
 
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SoulCloud

macrumors member
Apr 8, 2016
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Oh dear, we're going to have another chip gate next year.
Actually I don't care, but I'm sure this forum and a lot of other sites will be full of complaints
Actually, I care about it. Two different manufacturers for an SOC, especially if they have different manufacturing techniques is something to watch out closely. Apple may deny significance of last year's chipgate, but in a device where a battery is the most crucial component, even one hour more makes a huge difference. At least to me. Why wouldn't I get the advertised product or range? Since Apple is insanely obsessed with thinness, that one hour disadvantage means I have to carry external battery after six months or have to buy Mophie Juice Pack Plus. I did those with 6s and ain't doing again!
 
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Jakewilk

macrumors 6502
Jul 21, 2014
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7 nm?? The future is here. Not too long ago they were struggling to get below 16 nm and I began to worry that CPU mass production technology advancements were slowing to a halt, but I guess not!
 

WatchFromAfar

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At one place I worked, we had a big problem with Samsung 1TB SATA Disks. 30+ of them failed inside 3 months. Took us ages to get resolved. No one would admit 1) there was a problem or 2) Who's fault it was . The company resolved not to buy anything from Samsung again mainly because of the almost total lack of customer support.
OK I'll take you at face value that that happened. But so what? Doesn't change what I said about your next iPhone having a Samsung screen, Samsung processor and Samsung flash memory.
 

Juicy Box

macrumors 604
Sep 23, 2014
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Apple has two suppliers for their critical items. Flash memory: Toshiba and Samsung, Screens LG & Samsung: Processor TSMC or Samsung. Get this, your iPhone could be rockin' a Samsung screen, a Samsung processor and running off Samsung memory. Sounds like a Samsung phone to me....

But, it isn't designed by Samsung.

I am just pointing out what is important.

Exotic and luxury car companies use parts from non-exotic/luxury car part manufacturers all the time.

For example, Lotus uses Toyota parts on a few models, including motors like the one in the Toyota Camry. Would you say "sounds like a Toyota car to me"? I guess you could, but I wouldn't.
 
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I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
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OK I'll take you at face value that that happened. But so what? Doesn't change what I said about your next iPhone having a Samsung screen, Samsung processor and Samsung flash memory.
It's not a Samsung processor, it's an Apple processor outsourced manufacturing to Samsung. If that's your definition of a Samsung processor, we'll ok, it's your opinion.
 
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