Chipgate

How to see if your iPhone 6s has a TSMC or Samsung A9 chip

Apple A9

Apple has sourced A9 processors found in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus from two different suppliers, both Samsung and TSMC. While the design and real-world performance are practically the same, each chip manufacturer is actually using a different die size. The Samsung version (APL0898) is arguably more advanced since it uses a 14-nanometer process, resulting in an A9 with a footprint of 3.78 square inches. By contrast, the TSMC chip (APL1022) takes up 4.11 square inches thanks to a 16-nanometer process. So why does any of this matter?

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