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Yes, but Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD and countless others use the same fabs or at least have access to the same fabs. It's Apple's engineering and design.
by desiarnezjr 6y ago
Yes, but Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD and countless others use the same fabs or at least have access to the same fabs. It's Apple's engineering and design.
- m463 6y ago"Apple Books TSMC's Entire 5nm Production Capability" https://www.extremetech.com/computing/315186-apple-books-tsmcs-entire-5nm-production-capability https://www.extremetech.com/computing/315186-apple-books-tsm... so it seems apple paid to get to the front of the line
- desiarnezjr 6y agoAnd the problem there is? Any one of those companies are all long term TSMC customers and I have no doubt have solid working relationships with them. They would have had similar opportunity to book that fab capacity too.
- kilburn 6y agoThe problem is the assertion that "It's Apple's engineering and design". Engineering & design don't buy you the entire world's supply of the best in class fab capacity for some months: money does. It seems to me apple's marketing and product strategy has more to do with bringing in that money than actual engineering and design, contradicting the original assertion.
- dev_tty01 6y agoApple's engineering and design success is a huge part of why they have the resources to likely fund some of the 5 nm fab deployment costs and capacity. Money comes from success which came from great engineering and design coupled with great marketing. Marketing might get you there for a short time, but maintaining that growth and long term high customer satisfaction doesn't come without great engineering and design.
- dodobirdlord 6y agoApple wouldn't have shelled out the money to have first crack at 5nm if their design team couldn't commit to having a CPU design done in time. It's a huge R&D achievement to have such a complex design ready to go on a new node as the node launches. It speaks to extremely tight timelines and extremely close collaboration between TSMC and Apple.
- kilburn 6y agoI'm not saying apple's engineering isn't good, just that it doesn't seem to be that exceptional. If the other companies couldn't have a design ready for 5nm then why would apple pay for the exclusivity rights?
- szundi 6y agoIt is exceptional according to this reasoning. They pay because there is not enough of this 5nm fab. Business does not go against engineering, that’s all.
- totalZero 6y agoAt the risk of sounding cheeky, Apple's engineering and design are the sole source of the money involved. Apple's involvement with TSMC also provides TSMC with an opportunity to learn from Apple. Nobody books an entire pure-play foundry without taking the time to figure out what they want to do with that manufacturing capacity in the first place.
- nazgulnarsil 6y agoYeah, I'm tempted to say something like: it takes a while in your career before you figure out the enormous difference between companies who do engineering and design and companies who do design and engineering.
- ayewo 6y agoWhy does the difference in ordering imply a significance in difference?
- nazgulnarsil 6y agothink of it as 'and then they do'
- skunkworker 6y agoI see them as Apple paid to get to the front of the line and get 5nm built faster, they'll have the capacity for now. But other companies well benefit in the coming years as they can use the 5nm process sooner, more bugs ironed out and at a lower cost. Like what's happened to the older 32nm fabs.