TSMC to Begin Trial Production of Apple's A6X Chip This Quarter - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

TSMC to Begin Trial Production of Apple's A6X Chip This Quarter

ifixit a6xAFP reports on claims from Taiwanese newspaper Commercial Times indicating that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is set to begin trial production of Apple's A6X chip sometime this quarter. The chip is currently used in the fourth-generation iPad introduced in October.

The Taiwanese company has been contracted to manufacture the A6X chip, which drives Apple's iPad4 tablet, with trial production set for the first quarter of this year, Taiwan's Commercial Times reported.

The move is the latest in a strings of efforts by Apple to switch mass manufacturing contracts away from Samsung, it said.

Apple has been rumored for some time to be trying to switch to TSMC for production of its A-series chips, with some reports claiming that TSMC would be coming on board late this year for next-generation chips. More recent reports have claimed that TSMC could start production for Apple as soon as the second quarter, perhaps in line with today's rumor of trial production in the first quarter of the year.

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
ios 26 4 pastel

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...

Top Rated Comments

173 months ago
I've really never understood why people continue to call Samsung's phones "cheap," as if the plastic used is terrible quality.

Beacuse they are?

Step 1: Hold Galaxy phone in hand
Step 2: Give gentle squeeze
Step 3: listen to the creaking and feel the rubbish build quality
Step 4: Put rubbish phone down, pick iPhone up
Step 5: Squeeze iPhone and observe the wonderful build quality
Step 6: Buy iPhone.
Step 7: Repeat steps 1-7 yearly
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
173 months ago
Excellent news, Samsung can now better concentrate on making cheap, plastic phones.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
173 months ago
I've really never understood why people continue to call Samsung's phones "cheap," as if the plastic used is terrible quality.

I have a galaxy note 2, 1 drop on the floor and I can now see a lot of the white bezel underneath the very thin paint coating on plastic! So yeah, I would say Samsung phones are built on the cheap, you get what you pay for, that's where the price difference of £50 came between iPhone and Galaxy Note 2 in my case, better materials...
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
173 months ago
Try this on for size

Apple still needs Samsung.

At this point tsmc cannot produce enough chips.

The key words here being "at this point". Apple can throw a billion dollars at TSMC and say "go build us a factory." In a year or two, will Apple need Samsung?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Compile 'em all Avatar
173 months ago
Bye bye, Samsung!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
173 months ago
Bye bye, Samsung!

Remember what happened to 'Bye bye, Google'?

hahahaha
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Related Apple News: South Africa | Motoring | Politics | Mac | Entertainment