With Apple and Samsung warring, the sticky situation of who will manufacture chips for upcoming iDevices is becoming a hot topic of speculation. Samsung has been Apple’s manufacturing work horse for years, but with sour grapes between the two, Apple’s foundry needs are apparently up for grabs, with three big potential players in the running to score the prestigious contract.
GlobalFoundries, TSMC and ironically even Intel could be poised to pick Apple up as a customer, should the dispute with Samsung not resolve itself soon.
The folks over at EE Times have already pointed out the irony of what would happen should Intel win, making the x86 Atom chipmaker, the largest volume ARM chip manufacturer. Intel and ARM are fiercely competitive platform rivals, making it the equivalent of the US producing weapons for North Korea.
Intel doesn’t seem to mind much, however, and is said to be doing everything in its significant power to court the Cupertino fruit firm. While Intel doesn’t have experience in producing ARM chips, never mind in the volumes Apple would need, EE Times claims the chip giant’s advantage would be in the manufacturing process geometry of 22nm, as well as for performance and power consumption.
For Intel, the move would be a purely mercenary one, in which the firm stands to gain rather a lot of cash, manufacturing experience, manufacturing market share, and a close peek at its rival’s chip architecture, while it continues to develop its own Atom platform.
Apple is also said to be distrustful of Taiwanese giant TSMC, who while having the most experience, does not have the reputation for secrecy that Apple so highly values. Indeed, one of Apple’s biggest fears is said to be the fact that the Asian market – already rife with Apple iDevice rip-offs – could get a much more intimate look at their hardware innards and use the knowledge to their advantage.
Jim McGregor of In-Stat, however, told RCR he finds an Apple/Intel partnership to manufacture ARM chips highly implausible, noting that Apple would also need a fab with enough of an IP umbrella, to ensure everything on the chip is compliant. Intel, he says, just doesn’t have this when it comes to ARM chips.
“Intel doesn’t even have a foundry model today,” he told RCR adding that the firm was only “experimenting” in the space.
“It’s not out of the question, but it would be very strange for a number of reasons, not to mention the fact that Intel plans to become a significant tablet player using its own Atom chips, which would put them in competition not only with ARM but with Apple too,” he said.
“Apple also requires a speciality approach, not a volume approach,” posited McGregor, who told RCR he believes the contract is TSMC’s to lose.
“I think Apple will go with TSMC, because the firm has the most experience, though the firm could choose to go with GlobalFoundries which is a close ARM partner,” McGregor concluded.
“It’s not impossible but it would be really, really weird and have some barriers to overcome to happen,” an industry insider close to a major chip manufacturer added.
“It would be an incredibly difficult thing to do, first of all, and rather a lot of money would have to change hands, seeing as Intel would need a new ARM license, having sold its own to Marvell a few years back,” he went on.
Our foundry source also says he finds it hard to believe Intel would ever consider taking any fab capacity away from its own chips in order to produce enough ARM chips, especially if demand for Intel’s parts starts to soar.
“Intel’s not going to be doing that,” our source said.
Whatever way Apple rules in this three legged race, it will be a thrilling one to watch.
