According to DigiTimes, one of our favorite rumor sites since they have an above average track record when it comes to getting things right, Apple has just signed a deal with TSMC to manufacture the as yet to be announced A6 and A7 processors that’ll end up in future generations of iOS products. The rumor goes on the say that the A6 will be built using a 28 nanometer process and that the A7 will be using a 20 nanometer process. In other words, future Apple chips will be smaller and use up less power, therefore giving you longer battery life. The A5 that’s currently in the iPad 2 and will no doubt end up in the next generation iPhone is built on a 45 nanometer process. We’re wondering if Apple is thinking about using TSMC to build a 28 nanometer version of the A5, making it consume even less power, and also significantly cheaper. Such a chip would make a hell of a lot sense to shove into a product like the much talked about “iPhone 4S”, but that’s just speculation on our part.
The bigger news here is that Apple is moving their business away from Samsung, who has been responsible for producing every Apple processor (the A4 and A5) to date. It’s logical when you think about it. Why would Apple want to give Samsung, a company who competes with them in the mobile space, the blueprints to make the processor that’ll drive future generations of iOS products? Say all you want about respect and corporate ethics, but they’ll no doubt be a Samsung engineer who will try his best to comb through Apple’s ideas on how to build a processor and incorporate it into Samsung’s own Exynos chips.
Expect to hear more about the A6 in early 2012 when the third generation iPad is introduced. If it isn’t quad core, we’d be shocked.