Intel Corp (INTC)

[wbmw]

First iPhone6 Basemark benchmark scores

My theory is that TSMC's 20nm process missed its performance projections.

I think the rumors of a 2GHz Cyclone core pointed to what Apple was targeting. Of course, we now know the iPhone 6 will ship with 1.4GHz cores, which contributes to their miss in performance.

Of course, I think it's likely that we'll see better frequencies over time, and if Apple waits long enough, they'll see enough 2GHz parts to launch an iPad successor in first half 2015.

My theory is that the 20nm process is still not mature enough to deliver good yields and sufficient frequencies, but we'll see that improve over the next 6 months.

New process nodes have traditionally seen improvements over the ramp period - it's just that 20nm maturity (or lack thereof) may be more pronounced than previous nodes.