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Apple rumored to be moving away from Samsung as a chip supplier
Slashgear is reporting that Apple is starting to test out new foundries for the Ax-series processors, most likely to extricate themselves from a business relationship with Samsung:
Apple’s attempts to extricate itself from reliance on Samsung components continue, with titters from Taiwan that TSMC will begin trial production of the Apple A6X chip (found in the latest iPad with Retina) ahead of a bid for the next-gen A7 contract.
Changing fabrication facilities is a pretty big deal; it's not just a matter of sending them the same "blueprint" Samsung uses - the tiny details of the process are so important in chip-making that Apple pretty much needs to redo the entire physical design from scratch. Hopefully it will go better than the (partial) switch from Samsung in the MacBook Retinas..