WSJ Confirmed TSMC-Apple Alliance

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(1) Jessie Shen, TSMC with 20nm SoC Most lLkely to Secure Chip Orders fFom Apple, Says Digitimes Research Analyst. Digitimes.com, June 23, 2013,
http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q ... wQtehJt1J10dpR5GNDt

My comment: There was no confirmation until today (see next), so I decided to sit on it.

(2) Jessica E Lessin, Lorraine Luk and Juro Osawa, Apple Finds It Difficult to Divorce Samsung. Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2013 (front page).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 13882349940500.html

Quote:

"This month, after years of technical delays, Apple finally signed a deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to make some of the chips starting in 2014, according to a TSMC executive. The Process had been beset by glitches preventing the chips from meeting Apple's speed and power standards, TSMC officials said. Despite the deal, Samsung will remain the primary supplier through next year, one of these executives said.

Apple "no longer buys iPhone screens from Samsung and has reduced iPad-screen purchases, suppliers say.

"As early as 2010, Apple and TSMC started discussing working together to build the chips, say the TSMC executives.

My comment: TSMC might have hit a rough patch with Apple, but Samsung's contract with Apple will not end until next year, with the 32nm chip, which Samsung designed (Apple did not buy a design house until later). (TSMC is presently 28nm, which is not compatible with 32-nm design anyway). It appears to me  putting Digitimes and WSJ together, that Samsung is out of the picture in Apple's 20nm and beyond.