After Apple split orders for its new A9 chip between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung, Chipworks is reporting that Samsung A9 chips are 10 percent smaller than TSMC A9 chips found in the same iPhone 6s models.
While Apple has split orders for components to meet supply demands before, this is the first time such a critical component has not come from a single supplier, hinting that Apple faced serious supply issues in obtaining enough A9 chips to meet demand. Tests comparing performance and power use of the two different chips aren’t currently available, but in February sources said that Apple returned to Samsung because the company had a technological advantage over TSMC in its ability to shrink the size of transistors on its chips, allowing for a smaller chip that consumes less power.
A Taiwan court has ruled that Samsung used trade secrets stolen from TSMC to construct its own A9 chip in the first place, but how that ruling will affect future A9 chip orders and Samsung’s relationship with Apple is unclear. In recent years Apple has tried to distance itself from Samsung, sending orders for the A8 chip in the iPhone 6 to TSMC before returning to Samsung as the primary manufacturer of the A9.
