Posted on Friday, October 03 2014 @ 12:54 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
News hits the wire that Samsung now has three clients for its 14nm FinFET process. ZD Net
writes the South Korean giant is expected to manufacture application processors (APs) for clients such as Apple, Qualcomm and AMD. While the ZD Net story is focused around Apple, the news means AMD will order chips from three foundries: GlobalFoundries, TSMC and Samsung.
The Suwon, Korea-based tech giant is one of the two contract makers, the other being Taiwan's TSMC, for Apple's A8 processor that goes into the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The A8 is currently being made using 20-nanometre processes.
Out of the total volume of A8 chips, Samsung is producing around 30 percent, while TSMC is making 70 percent, sources familiar with the matter said.
Sources told ZDNet Korea that Samsung already has a contract in place with Apple to produce the A8's successor, tentatively named the A9, which will be made using the 14-nanometre process.
