Samsung Relies More In Its Own Chips For Mobiles
Samsung Electronics used more of its own chips to power the new Galaxy S6 smartphone than it did for the predecessor S5, according to a teardown report by Canadian consultancy Chipworks. According to the report, Samsung is using its own Exynos mobile processor, but is also relying on its in-house semiconductor business to source other parts, including the modem and power management integrated circuit chips.
Teardown reports of the predecessor Galaxy S5 showed that Qualcomm supplied several components that Samsung has supplanted with its own this year.
In addition, there are lots of rumours about Qualcomm using the Samsung 14-nm process for its chips.
South Korea-based company seems to plan to retake the lead in the so-called foundry business, which manufactures chips based on others’ designs.
According to a Bloomberg report on Friday, Samsung is also poised to manufacture the chips for Apple next iPhone, echoing an earlier report in The Wall Street Journal.
For the past few years, Samsung and rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. have been racing against each other to be the first to mass-produce chips with transistors measured at 14 or 16 nanometers.
In January, Mark Newman, an analyst for Bernstein Research in Hong Kong, predicted that Samsung would win the contract for Apple’s new chips back from TSMC, which produced the chips inside the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus using the 20nm technology.
Morris Chang, TSMC’s founder and chairman, had admitted that his company would lose some orders in 2015 since it wouldn’t have its next-generation chip-manufacturing process ready in time for the next iPhone launch.
That left Samsung as virtually the only viable player for Apple and Qualcomm.