As the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, as well as the long-rumored 12.9″ iPad Pro are now official, we all turn our heads towards the next year, when Apple’s expected to unveil the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Provided that the 6s and 6s Plus are not even out yet, it’s extremely early to spin the rumor roulette about the upcoming iPhone generation, as we probably have roughly a year before they will get unveiled.
Yet, one of the first rumors regarding the next-gen iPhone has just hit us. According to Commercial Times, a Chinese newspaper, the Taiwan-based TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) will be the exclusive manufacturer behind Apple’s next mobile chipset, the Apple A10 SoC. According to the rumor mill, it will be a 64-bit chip based on TSMC’s in-house 16nm FinFET manufacturing process, while the WLP (wafer-level packaging) of the chip will also be TSMC’s own backend integrated fan-out (InFO) one.
Back in March 2015, we told you that TSMC is expected to score as much as 70% of the Apple A9 chip orders, but according to newer tidbits of information, TSMC and Samsung have split the production of the silicon in two equal parts, each taking 50% of Apple’s orders. As a refresher, the Apple A9 is manufactured on either a 14nm or 16nm manufacturing process.
