Stefan Mileschin

Although tantrum-prone Apple has been looking for a key hardware partner that isn't top rival Samsung, signs suggest Cupertino may be about to give up, at least in application processors.

While TSMC was thought to have collected some of Apple's 20 nano AP A8 chips business, it turns out that Samsung has since out evolved the company and won the contract back.

According to the Korea Economic Daily, Samsung Electronics will supply mobile application processors to Apple from 2015. These will include the 14 nano A9 chips that will be used for Apple's iPhone 7, or whatever it happens to be called.

After losing the contract to TSMC last year, Samsung developed state-of-the-art 14 nano models which cleaned TSMC's clock and regained the order from Apple.

Samsung Electronics signed an agreement with Apple to supply the next-generation AP that it will produce in 2015.

The AP, to be produced using 14 nano FinFET technology, is mounted on Apple's iPhone 7 which should be released in the second half of 2015.

It is not clear how much of this is a backtrack for Apple. Since its trademark dispute over the rounded rectangle, Apple excluded Samsung memory chips, including mobile DRAMs, from the iPhone 5 that it released in September 2012. Samsung may or may not be considered for these.

Still, the news should be good news for Samsung. It means that it does not have to write off all its Apple business for the terrible crime of coming up with a better smartphone itself.

http://news.techeye.net/chips/apple-...eeking-samsung