Apple is continuing work on the upcoming “M2” chip with the help of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, a new report reveals.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics supplies the M1 chip's Flip Chip Ball Grid Array (FC-BGA), a circuit board that connects the semiconductor chip to the main substrate. This detail was only revealed by The Elec nearly a year after the M1 chip's launch. Although the M1, like all Apple SoCs, is manufactured exclusively by Taiwanese company TSMC, the chip contains components from multiple suppliers. The chip's circuit board, for example, is supplied by Ibiden and Unimicron, so Apple will have to coordinate multiple suppliers for its next-generation SoC for the Mac.
Apple M2 chip could debut in brand new MacBook Air
According to a report by ET News today according to Samsung is expected to continue to supply the FC-BGA for the M2. The company is said to be collaborating with Apple in a project to develop the M2 chip and will complete work on the FC-BGA for that chip this year. Apple reportedly started developing the M2 immediately after the launch of the M1 chip. The report confirms Mark Gurman's claimthat Apple is testing at least nine new Macs with four different M2 chip variants and that the first devices with the M2 could hit the market in the first half of 2022. The chip could first be introduced in Apple's brand new MacBook Air. (Photo by Photonphoto / Bigstockphoto)
