Given all the hype surrounding Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S7 flagship smartphone launches on the cohorts of the MWC in Barcelona, its nice to hear what's going on at the other side of the smartphone world. After being done with rather impressive launches of the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus last year, the Apple camp has quieted down but today we get to learn some more information about the chipset that should be powering the next generation of the iPhone; the Apple A10 and the iPhone 7 respectively.
TSMC Starts Making Active Progress Towards 10nm On The Apple A10
When it comes to processors and hardware, Apple's known for playing things quite close to the chest. The company's tightly knit hardware and software remain one of the sole reasons its products manage to do more with less and with the A10 we should expect things to take a nice turn towards the future. Last year, with the A9 on the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus Apple made some rather interesting moves w.r.t manufacturing as we saw chip orders split between Samsung and TSMC.
2016 seems to be the year of TSMC when it comes to all things Apple, as we've been hearing for quite a while now. The company's annual reports are out, which in addition to painting a good picture for its shareholders, also help us take a glimpse into its future plans with regards to the 10nm and 7nm manufacturing processes. TSMC's had a good year with the company earning $9.15 Billion in profits, which marks a 16% increase in revenues from last year.
TSMC has also started to work towards 10nm manufacturing processes for chipsets, given the increasing pressure from Samsung's end. The Korean manufacturer has managed to refresh its relevance in the mobile chipset world owing to the successful launch of the Exynos 7420 last year and seems all set to build on its successes with the upcoming launches of the Galaxy S7 and the Exynos 8890.
TSMC's expected to fully tap into 10nm at the end of Q1 2016, so as the year ends, we should expect the company to have finalized designs that can be implemented on a practical level. Where does that leaves the Apple A10 and its manufacturing process? Things should become more clear as time passes. Samsung's also started to invest in equipment for 10nm, so things do seem to be heading into the right direction. When they'll materialize is another question indeed. Thoughts? Let us know what you think in the comments section below and stay tuned for the latest.
