Apple reportedly moving its ARM chip supplies away from Samsung


According to a report from China Times, a Taiwanese publication, Apple is shifting its “flip-chip chip scale package for ARM chips” contract from Samsung’s SEMCO to Taiwanese printed circuit board maker Unimicron Technology Corp. Unimicron is a Taiwan based semiconductor company which deals with PCB related technology. This move clearly indicates Apple’s unwillingness to work with Samsung.

It is widely known that Apple has been manufacturing its own Ax chips with the help of Samsung’s semi conductor unit. In fact, it has been quite well known that the hummingbird chip on the Galaxy S is very much the Apple A4, which vastly is an attestation to the fact that Apple took chips from Samsung. But then, the ties have been largely strained thanks to the lawsuit being currently pursued by Apple after talk broke down.

Apple, and most manufacturers are dependent on Samsung for many things, mainly RAM units and flash storage. It is a known fact that most of the components, other than even the processor in Apple’s devices are from Samsung, as it is an end to end operation. However, as we already saw, it is inevitable that Apple is now unwilling to work with Samsung on any front. And hence, smaller or may be lesser known manufacturers are being awarded the orders. Unimicron is one such manufacturer who gets the order that has been taken away from Samsung, by Apple. It might be too technical to go in depth of the actual transaction, but the “flip-chip chip scale package for ARM chips” seems significant enough to make it to the national newspaper. So we guess it is indeed a big deal for both the companies, and seems that this will not stop here.

Apple is also said to be moving its Ax chip production to TSMC, again, in Taiwan. Apparently, most of the Ax chips are currently made in the US, in a Samsung facility. Having lost the lawsuit, this must be a bigger blow to Samsung. With that said, we shall see how it goes.

Source China Times via Electronista


Author: Bharadwaj Chandramouli

Bharadwaj is a content creator who has been obsessed with technology since the early days of smartphones. He loves talking about tech, is a fan of good design and photography. You can follow him on Twitter @gadgetbuff_ to know what he's upto!