Samsung's New Texas Factory for A5 Chip Production Now Fully Operational
Reuters reports that Samsung, Apple's manufacturing partner for a number of components in its iOS devices, has completed work on a new factory in Austin, Texas that is handling production of the A5 system-on-a-chip found in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. Samsung had announced the $3.6 billion project in June 2010, but has not publicly admitted that the facility is dedicated to producing components for Apple.
The A5 processor - the brain in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 - is now made in a sprawling 1.6 million square feet factory in Austin owned by Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics, according to people familiar with the operation.
One of the few major components to be sourced from within the United States, the A5 processor is built by Samsung in a newly constructed $3.6 billion non-memory chip production line that reached full production in early December.
The report's source indicates that nearly all of the factory's production, which encompasses non-memory chips such as the A5, is dedicated to Apple. The new factory is said to have resulted in 1,100 new employees being brought on by Samsung, which also employees 2,400 employees at a NAND flash memory factory in Austin.
Samsung's significant investment in Austin to provide Apple with chips for the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S signals the importance the company places on the supply relationship even as the two companies are locked in a global intellectual property dispute involving Apple's iOS devices and Samsung's own Android-based mobile hardware.
Apple had been said to be moving production of its future A6 and A7 chips for iOS devices to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, but more recent reports have claimed that Apple will be sticking with Samsung for at least the A6 and that Samsung is already ramping up production of the A6 at the Austin facility.
With Samsung's Austin facility now fully online, the company appears poised to meet Apple's surging demand for iPhone and iPad products as it is already preparing for the next generations of those devices to land sometime next year, almost certainly to be led by the iPad 3 early in 2012.
Popular Stories
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28.
The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Software from an iPhone prototype running an early build of iOS 26 leaked last week, giving us a glimpse at future Apple devices and iOS features. We recapped device codenames in our prior article, and now we have a list of some of the most notable feature flags that were found in the software code.
In some cases, it's obvious what the feature flags are referring to, while some are more...
Last week, details about unreleased Apple devices and future iOS features were shared by Macworld. This week, we learned where the information came from, plus we have more findings from the leak.
As it turns out, an Apple prototype device running an early build of iOS 26 was sold, and the person who bought it shared the software. The OS has a version number of 23A5234w, and the first...
The first foldable iPhone will feature a series of design and hardware firsts for Apple, according to details shared by the Weibo leaker known as Digital Chat Station.
According to a new post, via machine translation, Apple is developing what the leaker describes as a "wide foldable" device, a term used to refer to a horizontally oriented, book-style foldable with a large internal display....
Apple is testing iOS 26.3, the next version of iOS 26 that will launch around January. Since iOS 26.3's testing is happening over the holidays, it is a smaller update with fewer features than we've seen in prior betas.
We've rounded up what's new so far, and we'll add to our list with subsequent betas if we come across any other features.
Transfer to Android
Apple is making it simpler...
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. iOS 26.2 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation iPhone SE.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
Apple released the AirPods Max on December 15, 2020, meaning the over-ear headphones launched five years ago today. While the AirPods Max were updated with a USB-C port and new color options last year, followed by support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio this year, the headphones lack some of the features that have been introduced for newer generations of the regular AirPods and the ...
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
