According to the fresh report it appears that Apple's latest A9 SoC actually comes from both Samsung and TSMC and will be available in two different sizes.

According to a report from Chipworks.com, it appears that Apple is using both the TSMC 16nm FinFET and Samsung 14nm FinFET manufacturing process for its latest A9 SoC, which means that this is the first dual-sourced part.

What makes things even more interesting is that we are looking at chips that are different in sizes. The first chip, APL0898, made on Samsung's 14nm FinFET manufacturing process is actually 96mm2 SoC while the APL1022, made on TSMC's 16nm FinFET manufacturing process is a 104.5mm2 chip.

There are quite a few reasons for Apple to use both companies for its A9 SoC. is that it can get a decent volume of chips, despite the fact that the chip had to be taped out twice.

While it is obvious that Apple needs both chips to be identical, the Samsung A9 chip is about 8 percent smaller and despite the fact that both can reach the same clock speed, the power consumption might not be the same. The big question is if the one of the A9 chips is better than the other one.

Apple is already in trouble for differences in Samsung and LG displays in Macbooks and it is left to be seen if the company will have similar problems with two different A9 SoCs.





Source: Anandtech.com.