Apple lets both Samsung and TSMC make A9-soc for iPhone 6s

Apple has designed two different socs for the iPhone 6s, according to an analysis by Chipworks. Some of the phones get the Samsung-manufactured version of the A9, the other part has a processor on board from the TSMC factories.

The A9 socs have different type numbers, Chipworks claims. In addition, the sizes are different. While TSMC’s is 104.5mm2, Samsung’s is 96mm2. The site is betting that both manufacturers have used their smallest process in production. At Samsung this is 14nm FinFet, at TSMC it is 16nm, also a FinFet process.

It’s a mystery why Apple makes two socs that it then presents under the same name. Chipworks suggests that there were major problems with the production of the A9, so that Apple with two different manufacturers spread the chances that shortages will arise and the device would be poorly available. It is exceptional for a manufacturer to have the same mobile soc produced by both Samsung and TSMC. The A8 had Apple made at TSMC, the A7 came from Samsung.

It seems that there is no way for people to find out what soc is in their copy of the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus. It is not yet clear whether there is a noticeable difference in performance between the two A9 socs. The soc contains a dual-core CPU on Apple’s own Twister core, notes Anandtech. The CPU cores run at a maximum of 1.8GHz. The GPU has six computing cores, but which GPU it is exactly is unknown.