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Apple’s brand new A9 processor made two big companies want to help develop it. Apple wanted the spotlight for themselves and turned down these companies. They designed the processor, but it looks like they should have thought about the final decision multiple times. The new A9 processor is a disappointment and it is making Apple look back in time to see what they did wrong.
According to Chipworks experts, the iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus contain two different CPU models. One of them is a rather small component, designed by Samsung, while the other one is a little bit larger and designed by TSMS. The Samsung and TSMC devices are made on different processes, the former being a 14nm one and the latter a 16nm.
If Apple did bother with dual sourcing parts designed by them alone and released them in the first day, this means that the devices are going to have some disturbing sourcing problems. The issues of power and cost are two very delicate ones and there is practically no reason to use a larger die. Or is there? This situation would only be understandable if the smaller die did not come with the right volumes.
While the entire situation is rather suspicious, Redditors came in with a great number of comments about what is happening with the processor right now. IT appears that battery tests that were made in China have revealed more than we know about the TSMC chip: it has an extra 20% battery life compared to the Samsung one. For most of us, that is a significant number.
Apple came forward defeding the way they test their chips in the lab stating that “Certain manufactured lab tests which run the processors with a continuous heavy workload until the battery depletes are not representative of real-world usage, they spend an unrealistic amount of time at the highest CPU performance state.”
And it is true. The phones that are being tested are continuously bombarded with data so that they can be pushed to the limits. But in our day to day lives we use our telephones for limited periods of time. They do not run 24/7. Sometimes we just require more of them and sometimes we do not use them at all.
Even though battery life is a huge debate, we simply have to wait and see how this entire situation unfolds. Apple still has some explanations to give, so we will see if they give us anything that looks suspicious. One thing is certain for the moment: the new A9 processor is a disappointment.
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