Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC will next year become the only manufacturer of single-chip systems Apple A10, BGR reports citing analysts UBS. The main reason that Apple refuses to service Samsung, is the superiority of the technological process InFO (Integrated Fan-Out), represented TSMC in the first half of last year, experts say.
Currently, system-on-chip Apple A9, which are used in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, produced TSMC and Samsung Electronics. What share each company produces, it is not known, but experts estimate that about 60-70% of chip supplies to Samsung, and the remainder to the company TSMC. It is known that in some tests the processors from TSMC show better results than the Samsung chips.
Analysts at UBS claim that the production of SOC Apple A10 designed for the iPhone 7, will be launched in March next year. TSMC has become the sole manufacturer that will allow the company next year to earn an additional $300 million, and in 2017 – $1 billion
“We believe that the business of Samsung release of processors will start to experience difficulties in the second quarter of 2016, analysts at UBS. According to our estimates, in 2016, TSMC will receive a share close to 100% in new orders for Apple’s A10 processors, based on the technology of Integrated Fan-Out (InFO). Thanks to the InFO Apple can get higher performance with a small form factor. In this case, in our opinion, Samsung will lose business for the production of IC-substrates, as InFO for this component not required. We expect that the technology for Fan-Out (FO) will eventually be adapted by other manufacturers of SoC platforms, including Samsung LSI”.
InFO technology will relieve the manufacturer from a number of problems with production of chipsets, allowing you to impose logical matrix at each other, then install them directly on the circuit Board. And besides the obvious advantages of such a structure, it allows you to refuse the use of the substrate that reduces the thickness of PCB is 0.2 mm, and improves the dissipation of heat, increasing the performance of chipset, up to 20%.
This year, Apple’s orders accounted for about 14% of TSMC revenue. Analysts at HSBC believe that next year this figure may increase to 24%, and total revenue will increase by 8%.
