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Qualcomm plans to shift 20nm orders from TSMC to Samsung or Globalfoundries, say sources

Josephine Lien, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 13 May 2014]

Qualcomm reportedly plans to shift its 20nm process orders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to Samsung Electronics or Globalfoundries, according to industry sources.

Qualcomm's move comes after TSMC began volume production of Apple's A8 processors based on advanced 20nm process in the second quarter of 2014 and has thus allocated much technological resources to the production - a favor with Apple that has upset Qualcomm, currently TSMC's largest client, the sources explained.

Thus, Qualcomm is seeking support from other foundry houses for the 20nm production, with the initial focus to be on production of 4G modem solutions, added the sources.

However, TSMC has denied the report.

With Apple also continuing to deepen its deployments in chipset production, from application processors to probably baseband chips and Wi-Fi chips in-house, Apple may become a strong contender with Qualcomm and also replace Qualcomm as TSMC's largest client, the sources noted.


digitimes.com