Apple paid $18.2 million to buy a small
chipmaking factory in San Jose that could help the company test new
chips to power its products, according to a report in the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Apple purchased the 70,000-square foot
facility from chipmaker Maxim Integrated Products last week, the
Business Journal said, citing public records. The facility includes chip
manufacturing tools and is located near Samsung Semiconductor, one of
the main manufacturers for Apple's A9 processor, the chip at the heart
of the iPhone.
Apple currently designs the main
processor used in its iPhones, iPads and Apple Watch devices, while
Samsung and and TSMC manufacture the actual chips.
The real estate deal suggests that Apple
may want to take a more hands-on role creating its chips, but does not
necessarily mean the company will start manufacturing its own chips.
For one thing, the facility is small. As the marketing material for the property says, the facility is well suited for "prototype, pilot and low-volume manufacturing."
It's not unusual for chip companies to
operate special, small-scale "fabs" where new chip designs are tested
and tweaked, with volume production handled at significantly larger
facilities.
The equipment in the fab is also geared
for the analog and mixed-signal chips that Maxim develops, and is not
cutting-edge enough to produce Apple's A9 processors. The A9 processors
feature tiny transistors measuring 14 nanometers and 16 nanometers,
which is pretty much the most advanced technology available today. The
equipment at the Maxim facility, by contrast, is capable of building
chips with much less advanced transistors that measure anywhere from 600
nanometers to 90 nanometers.
Apple could upgrade the facility by
purchasing and installing more cutting-edge equipment. Or it's possible
that Apple wants to use the facility to test other types of chips
besides its line of processorshttp://www.businessinsider.com/apple-buys-small-chip-fab-2015-12
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