Major chip foundries having trouble with 10nm chip production

The latest 10nm ARM CPUs may join NAND and OLED in the list of components affected by shortages: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the foundry responsible for producing ARM CPUs based on Samsung's 10nm process, seems to be having trouble getting enough yield of the chips out of their fabrication process, according to sources of the DigiTimes.

TSMC is not only producing Apple's A10X chips for the next iPad update, but also producing the A11 chips for the upcoming iPhone 8. Poor yields could potentially be disasterous for Apple if it affects their production and sales timelines, as Apple sells about 10 times the number of iPhones as they do MacBooks. TSMC also has taken orders from MediaTek and HiSilicon.

Qualcomm has taken a cautious stance following the news of manufacturing difficulties, revising their 2017 product roadmap. Sources told the DigiTimes that Qualcomm would continue using 14nm chips, including the Snapdragon 660 and others, to mitigate a potential shortage.