Apple may soon rely on TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing) for its entire new iPad lineup in 2014. As expected, Samsung has dropped the production due to low yield of the 20nm manufacturing process. On the other hand, TSMC is able to meet demands required by Apple. This isn’t a surprising development, because the Wall Street Journal already reported last year, on July that TSMC might soon provide Apple some A-series processor.
With its massive production capacity, TSMC was expected to meet 70 percent of the manufacturing load. However, production problems have caused the removal of Samsung from Apple’s new processor supply chain. The shift may not be reversed when Apple starts ordering the A9 processor in 2015. We heard previously that Samsung will supply 40 percent of the A9 processor production in 2015, which will be based on the 16nm process.
The Apple A8 processor may soon make a public appearance with the release of new iPad later this year. The platform could also have 4G LTE support. Generally, chips designed for very few devices tend to have better optimized battery life, while maintaining reasonable performance level.
Ming-Chi Kuo reported last week that Apple will stop producing Apple iPad 2 and this should be a good indication that a new iPad model is already in the pipeline.