
Samsung core confirmed inside iPhone 4S - Garbage
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20122324-64/samsung-core-confirmed-inside-iphone-4s/
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Mordor
It's an ARM core on a chip manufactured by Samsung (i.e. not a Samsung core).

Also, if the "A5 is SoC including RAM", then the RAM is on the same piece of
silicon as the ARM core (for it to be SoC). Not sure how it's possible for
Samsung to make part of the silicon (for the core) and someone else to make
the RAM. Perhaps the RAM isn't on the A5 after all ;-)

There's no risk in Apple switching manufacturers (e.g. Samsung Nexus uses a TI
OMAP SoC CPU, instead of a Samsung Exynos for the Galaxy S II). Switching to
Intel is the massive risk, since they don't use ARM cores at all, so the O/S
would require a rewrite.

Finally, the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture isn't aimed at lower power computing
(Intel Atom chips are based on the Bonnell microarchitecture), so there's
unlikely be 3D transistor technology...

Apple's real move would be to drop the A6 entirely and focus on the same CPU's
used by Android, since the both Android and Apple are using ARM V7 instruction
sets with Cortex A9 cores.

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willyt
> Switching to Intel is the massive risk, since they don't use ARM cores at
> all, so the O/S would require a rewrite

I think the idea behind the Intel rumour is that Intel would 'just' be a fab
in this scenario. They would license the ARM tech and fab the A6, so the story
goes...

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Mordor
That's an even bigger story, as it would mean Intel is no longer able to
design CPU's LOL

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CountSessine
It would be interesting to know what the politics inside Samsung are vis-a-vis
the dispute with Apple. It's hard to believe that the silicon people were
thrilled with the mobile division kicking sand in their biggest customer's
face. If Samsung's mobile division gets a little bit bigger and their
components business gets a little bit smaller, is this a net-win for them?

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nknight
I wonder what Samsung's long-extant mobile division thought of Samsung's
silicon division getting in bed with a competitor?

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piotrSikora
"Business as usual."

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ohboy
If they're still dependent on Samsung for their main processor it kinda makes
you wonder how well they're doing finding another processor for the iPhone 5.

I know the 4S just came out but traditionally iPhones have come out over the
summer so we _might_ see the iPhone 5 as soon as 7 months from now.

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wmf
There's not much of a story here. Where chips are fabbed doesn't matter than
much. When the A5 came out in the iPad 2, it was manufactured by Samsung (that
decision was probably made around two years ago) and nothing has changed since
then.

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2muchcoffeeman
How long does a contract to supply silicon usually last?

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protomyth
Varies pretty heavily and could be many years. Check all the wrangling when
Apple bought P.A. Semi. The DoD contracts can go on for more than a decade.

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latch
i remember reading that apple tended to financially help companies set up new
fabs/equipment/whatever in exchange for fairly long term contracts. For
example, when they do a die-shrink, apple might pay 30% of the cost to upgrade
the fab, in exchange for preferred (in terms of quality and price) chips for X
years. No source, too lazy.

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ck2
Corporations as large as both of them really do not care.

Greed for profits overrides any "pride". Happens all the time.

Google is still paying Mozilla millions for home page links right?

