GlobalFoundries is preparing to make chips for Apple
Samsung hasn’t been the sole supplier of A-series chips for Apple for a long time. A report from earlier this year revealed that Apple made a deal with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for A-series chips production, however later Samsung appeared on the frontline once again and currently Apple will start producing the chips at GlobalFoundries that indicates a new wave of cooperation with Samsung. According to the source, a small team from Samsung is joining Apple’s chip- making recipes and will help GlobalFoundries setting up the manufacturing processes at Fab 8 that will be needed in order to make more chips. Nevertheless, it isn’t quite clear if the process is completed or if GlobalFoundries will be making the chips with Samsung as the customer on the behalf of Apple, thought either way the ultimate customer stays Apple and so far that’s the bottom line.
Apparently, Apple and Samsung are competitors, but Apple doesn’t make its own chips so it needs outsourcing which leads to using Samsung for its domestic factory and the provision of memory chips in addition to Samsung’s developed technology in making logic and memory chips better than anyone else. Meanwhile, GlobalFoundries offers Apple a domestic source for those chips and things get interesting. If we turn back for a little piece of history, Samsung and GlobalFoundries had already been syncing four of their labs to include the latest chips for mobile devices. Samsung is in a unique position to help GlobalFoundries create the manufacturing processes.
According to GlobalFoundries spokesman Jason Gorss ‘We don’t comment on customer engagements or products unless they do so first. That is our standard policy’ so it’s not clear if GlobalFoundaries will be making the A-series chips alongside with Samsung or Apple is going to be the direct customer, however Apple would be aiming an additional capacity for its iPhone and iPad chips.
Source: Times Union Blog
