Samsung to supply Apple with chips again

It looks like Apple and Samsung have started getting along again. According to Hankyung, Samsung will be selling its mobile application processors (AP) to Apple from 2015 onwards. The Korean company will be supplying 14 nano Cortex-A9 based chips to Apple, which will be used in the iPhone 7.

Samsung has been supplying APs to Apple since 2007—with the first iPhone. However, the company has since lost the contract with Apple. It was revealed back in June that Apple has signed a deal with Taiwan Semi-conductor Manfucturing Company (TMSC) as the makers for the Apple A7, A8 and A9 chips which Apple will start using from early 2014.

Samsung chips will be powering future iPhones

TSMC will be supplying 20nm, 16nm and 10nm chips to Apple in a three-year agreement, according to sources who spoke to Digitimes. Neither TSMC nor Global UniChip, its IC design partner, commented on the development, which comes after Apple cut ties with Samsung for the production of the A7 chip.

According to the report, the Taiwanese chip maker will start to manufacture Apple's A8 chips in July 2013, but this will be in small volume with an increase in production expected to come after December. The new 20nm fab equipment will be capable of processing 50,000 wafers in the first quarter of 2014. The 20nm Apple A8 processor will be used in the 2014 iPhone and iPad.

A portion of the 20nm production line will most likely be upgraded to process wafers used to build 16nm chips. TSMC is scheduled to mass produce the Apple A9 and A9X CPUs starting at the end of Q3 of 2014.