It had been industry speculation prior to the iPhone 6S launch that Apple would be dual-sourcing the A9 and A9X from Samsung and TSMC, respectively. Chipworks has begun its teardown of Apple's iPhone 6S has confirmed the previous rumor. The firm made the dual-sourcing determination based on a difference in die sizes between the A9 SoCs it tore apart. One, the APL0898, measures 96 square millimeters, and Chipworks says it has been made by Samsung. The other, called the APL1022, measures 104.5 square millimeters, and it's made by TSMC.

Chipworks says that that the smaller die size of the Samsung chip demonstrates the Korean company's process technology scaling leadership (14nm FinFET). The site also believes Apple has been forced to dual-source its SoCs due to "sourcing problems."