MALTA — GlobalFoundries and Samsung are planning to produce chips for the iPhone 7 at Fab 8 in Malta, according to a news report from Taiwan.
The story — published Wednesday by Digitimes, a Taipei newspaper that closely follows Asia’s high-tech sector — sheds light on how GlobalFoundries and Samsung Corp. will work together to produce the so-called A-series chips that power Apple’s popular iPhone and iPad devices.
The Times Union reported Monday that Samsung will assist GlobalFoundries in making chips for Apple, although neither Samsung nor GlobalFoundries confirmed the arrangement or when production would begin.
Some industry analysts have speculated that Samsung, which has made the microprocessors used in iPhones since their debut in 2007, is using GlobalFoundries for extra capacity. That would be needed should Samsung not be able to meet Apple’s demand for the chips, which are currently made in Austin, Texas, at Samsung’s S2 fab.
The Digitimes story describes a much more complex scenario that could potentially make Fab 8 a major source of the A-series chips for the iPhone 7, which will be released in 2015.
Most in the industry already believe that Samsung lost the chip order for the iPhone 6, which will be released in 2014, to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest “foundry,” or contract chip maker, that makes chips for companies that don’t have their own chip factories.
Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., outsources most of what goes into the iPhone and iPad. The most intriguing questions are who makes the main processing chip, which is the brains of the phone, and where it is made. Because of the demand for Apple products, securing an order for the A-series chip will be extremely lucrative. Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones from July to September alone, a three-month period during which the company pulled in $37.5 billion in revenue. During the current holiday season, Apple’s revenues could reach nearly $60 billion.
The current iPhone uses what’s known as the A7 chip. Digitimes says Samsung and GlobalFoundries are planning to make the chip two generations removed that will be called the A9 chip to power the iPhone 7.
“GlobalFoundries will have its Fab 8 complex in Malta manufacture the reported A9 processor chips for Apple, while Samsung will collect royalties for licensing its patents,” Digitimes reported.
That description lines up with stories that the Times Union has published that say Samsung will send a small team to Fab 8 with the “recipe” for the A-series chips to help GlobalFoundries become a second domestic source for Apple’s chips. The Times Union has also reported that Samsung would use the $2 billion technology development center being built at Fab 8 by GlobalFoundries to perfect chip designs before they go into full production.
That new center, known as the TDC, will be completed next year, before the A9 chips for the iPhone 7 will be needed by Apple.
lrulison@timesunion.com, 518-454-5504, @larryrulison
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(c)2013 the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.)
