The A9 chip of the iPhone 6S entered production on an industrial scale within TSMC and Samsung, sources close to the two companies confirming the fact that this extremely important component is produced for the launch of the iPhone 6S in the fall.
Apple initiated a trial production of the iPhone 6S during June, but industrial scale production will only start in August, and its partners are starting to produce some components for the future smartphone, the A9 chip being one of the most important.
Before the production of the A9 chip for iPhone 6S to begin, Apple requested some modifications for the case that hides them, but this does not affect the production capacity of the two companies, so they will have enough units available until August.
Although it was said that this chip A9 for iPhone 6S will be produced using a 14nm manufacturing process, so in the end Apple would have chosen one of 16nm FinFET, those from Samsung going to use a similar manufacturing process for this component.
TSMC and Samsung Foundry, which share orders for Apple's A9 application processors, have both started volume production of the chips, according to industry sources. TSMC, with its 16nm FinFET process technology, will enter mass production of the A9 chips starting the fourth quarter of 2015, the sources indicated.
It is not known what percentage of the total number of A9 chips for iPhone 6S will be produced by Samsung and TSMC, but we know that TSMC will also manufacture the new Touch ID chip for the terminal, which will be faster and more accurate in reading fingerprints and operating functions.
Based on the data provided so far by various publications around the world, the new A9 chip for iPhone 6S will come with:
- 64-bit triple-core processor;
- 2 GB RAM;
- a better graphics card;
- a more efficient energy management system.
We will definitely find out additional details about the iPhone 6S and the new A9 chip in the coming weeks.
