Slashdot Mirror
Report: Apple To Switch From Samsung to TSMC For ARM CPU Production
another random user writes "Apple is planning to shift production of its ARM-based microprocessors from Samsung to the Taiwanese chip-baking giant TSMC as early as next year, according to a report by the China Economic News Service (CENS). The report cites CitiGroup Global Markets analyst J.T. Hsu as saying that TSMC will be Apple's sole supplier of 20nm quad-core processors, with volume production to begin in the fourth quarter of 2013. He also noted that Apple began its 20nm chip-verfication process at TSMC in August of this year. Hsu told CENS that the future quad-core chips were intended for Apple's 'iPad, iTV and even Macbook,' turning up the heat on two rumors that have been simmering for months: that Apple is planning a move into the television market, and that an ARM-based MacBook is in the works."
to compete with Microsoft's Surface
You're funny.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Dammit Apple, how about doing something on your other lines?? Mobility is nice but desktop needs improvement! Big improvement!
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
This is not a new reaction. It was confirmed last year that TSMC would be making Apple A5 chips in addition to Samsung. From a logistical standpoint does it make sense for Apple to have only one supplier of a critical component? Also 20nm is another reason to use TSMC. Samsung won't move to this size until later from what I remember.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Don't hold your breath.. The TV business already has thin margins, and the display manufacturers partly make it up on smaller screens.
Doubt it. The first reason AppleTVs are not popular is because home consoles even though they cost way more. The PS3 and Xbox360 can do everything the AppleTV do and much more(Bluray and DVD, real games, more digital content etc, better media streaming tools, better control interfaces and recording capabilities). The only thing I know more complete than a PS3 to hook up to a home theater setup is a custom made HTPC.
The other reason is the bad marketing. Apple success is marketing and when they find a way to distort the reality around the appleTV, it will fly off the shelves.
How many people *ACTUALLY* need to run custom code tho? It keeps the iPhone mostly free of viruses or crash prone apps and the target audience for iPhone is customers not DIY hackers.
Android is so open but yet the Jelly Bean installation base is only 1.5% after 3 months. There's a difference between "theoretically open" and actual real world practise.
If you really want to run your own code for whatever reason (custom robot?) you can either Jailbreak or just get an enterprise license from Apple then you can run any code you want.
"Competing" or even running at a loss for a while, trying to break into a market, isn't "attacking", What Apple is doing, meanwhile, IS attacking.
And you're wrong about Android. Google is making plenty of money, and NOT from advertising. While Android proper is free, anybody who wants-in on Google's Apps (Gmail, maps, navigation, etc) and the Market / Play Store, has to get a license from Google. They're making good money from it.
What's more, Google has no reason to use patents to attack Apple or Microsoft. Google doesn't have any lock-in on Android that would make that profitable from an advertising perspective. Anybody (see: Amazon) can change out the Google apps, and not use Google search... Some handset makers change everything to Bing, because the Microsoft money is better (though their service is unreliable), and I personally changed my Android phone to use DDG. Meanwhile, Google *does* have ample reason to aquire patents for defensive purposes, since there are concerted attacks by Apple, which Google needs to defend against to ensure the survival of Android.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Actually, I could imagine having a 64-bit ARM Ubuntu laptop. Something fairly light-weight and long battery life, but with a number of cores (most CPU intensive stuff I actually do on my laptop is very parallelisable), plenty of memory and a largish SSD.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
My wife just swapped her phone for a Samsung Galaxy S3. In a long time (probably since the iPhone1) I'm jealous and want one, too. The S3 looks fantastic and works great. The interface is awesome, there's no need to root it like with older Android phones.
The patent trolling from Apple also made Google/Samsung to invent. One example is screen unlock. On the S3 you can swipe the screen anywhere and even launch apps (like email or camera) directly from the unlock screen. Better user experience with more functionality.
In the meantime Apple had to do some catching up and they made the screen larger on the iPhone5. But instead of making the screen larger in both directions, they opted to change the aspect ratio, so now ios developers have to support yet another screen layout (at least pre-iphone5, iphone5 and ipad for a universal app). On the other hand, Android was designed from the beginning to support multiple aspect ratios, so one layout can handle it all (and no, this is not a cause of fragmentation, it's a solution to it).
Then Apple tried to stick it to Google with dropping maps. We all know how that turned out.
The solution is simple: Apple should stop with the patent trolling. It is biting them in the rear. Android is here to stay. They should go back to inventing and competing, otherwise they will be out-invented and out-competed. I know they are making money hand over fist, but just take a look at their stock price since iphone5 release.
Jelly Bean? I can't even run full ICS! Samsung is closed-source on all the drivers for my "open" Android phone. You can install ICS, but you get no video acceleration or camera - and other quirks like the face sensor and the accelerometers not working properly (or at all). It's a fun geek toy, but honestly you could load not-quite-functioning Android even on the iPhone. (To be fair, that project seems to have stalled recently.)
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Microsoft couldn't even make a clean transition between 32 and 64 bit.
Difference is Apple could release 64-bit on their terms, Microsoft is at the whims of the hardware manufacturers.
Apple could put out the G5 series as they saw fit. Microsoft is expected to throw something together the moment the hardware becomes available.
Plus having used XP 64-bit since it was available. Most of the issues were with incompatible drivers. With Apple that is not a problem, their is only one or two of each piece of hardware that is your entire "options" so producing a dozen drivers verses having to produce hundreds by all the hardware manufacturers.
That's not how Apple works. Their business model is to identify market segments with no competitors, enter them, hype their product until it's identified with that market segment,
I guess it worked on you then since you've forgotten all these MP3 players (Creative etc.), phones (Nokia, Sony Ericsson etc.), tablets (Microsoft etc.) that was before Apple. Of course they've picked their angle of attack to find trendsetters and increase market share quick, but I'd say Apply has pushed a fair number of competitors aside. They're really not into green-fielding completely new types of products, they ambush niches and rapidly increase their size into big markets. I do agree they're looking to be the biggest player though they won't start anything where they'll be second or third fiddle.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings