Apple’s A-series of chipsets has typically been manufactured by Samsung, although given that both companies aren’t necessarily on the best of terms, Apple has since moved on to other manufacturers. For example it was recently discovered that the A8 chipset found in the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are from TSMC. However there have also been rumors that suggests that Apple could be returning to Samsung for their A9 chipsets in 2015.
Though the A8 chip was recently unveiled in the iPhone 6, Apple is said to already be lining up deals for next year’s presumed “A9” processor, which will reportedly be manufactured with a 14-nanometer process by longtime partner Samsung. Samsung is expected to begin producing 14-nanometer application processors for Apple, Qualcomm and AMD around the end of the year, according to ZDNet. The South Korean company has built custom mobile chips for Apple since the launch of the first iPhone in 2007, but recently has seen its position reduced. Prior to the launch of the iPhone 6, Samsung manufactured all of Apple’s low-power ARM processors at its factory in Austin, Tex. But starting with the A8 CPU in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple brought rival chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. into the fray.
