Samsung to manufacture Apple’s A9 chip for next-gen iPhones

Samsung and Apple have a strange relationship. While the Korean tech giant builds many of the iPhone’s components, it’s also quick to launch marketing attacks on the company too. And while Apple tries its utmost to sever its reliance to the company, it inevitably draws ever nearer. Take this for example — according to ZDNet, Samsung has won the contract to manufacturer Apple’s A9, 14nm processors.

The current A8 SoC that finds its home in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models is co-produced by Samsung and TSMC, with the latter manufacturing around 70% of the production volume. But the new A9 (or what is being referred to as the A9) will be made by Samsung at the end of this year, well before the projected 2015 date. TSMC however, is planning to produce chips using the slightly larger 16nm process, taking it out of the A9 running, at least for now.

Samsung will also manufacture chips for other companies using its new process, including mobile chip giant Qualcomm and Intel‘s major competitor AMD, so this isn’t an exclusive for Apple either.

Considering that the A8 is massively powerful, showing its muscle in the iPhone 6’s gaming performance, the A9 should be a cut above it in pure performance. Battery life will also see a jump thanks to the reduced processor size  And although the chips might be arriving sooner than expected, it doesn’t mean that the world will see an iPhone 7 anytime soon.

Image: Kārlis Dambrāns via Flickr