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For High-End CPUs, Qualcomm Ditches TSMC For Samsung
An anonymous reader writes: A report at Re/code says Qualcomm will have its next-gen Snapdragon 820 CPU made at Samsung's foundries, instead of TSMC's. The report points out a couple of good reasons for the switch: first of all, Samsung's plants run on a 14nm process, while TSMC still uses a 20nm process. Second — and more telling — Samsung recently ditched Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors for their new Galaxy S6 smartphone, opting to use their own Exynos chips instead. With the phone expected to sell upwards of 70 million units, that's a huge missed opportunity for Qualcomm. It's feasible Qualcomm could get Samsung to drop its own chips, because the Snapdragon 820 will have an onboard LTE modem. That would reduce the cost of assembling a phone, and also free up some space to make it smaller.
I had the first Qualcom/Sprint cellphone with a lifetime plan, no monthly service charge, and free phone upgrades, for life. The phucks at Sprint refused to replace the phone after it broke 15 years later, had to buy a new service plan or cancel. Cancelled and will never go with Sprint.