iPhone 13 chip producer reportedly hit by gas contamination

iPhone 13 flake producer reportedly hit past gas contagion

(Image credit: Weibo)

A gas contamination has hit one of the nigh important factories in Apple tree's product line, according to a report from Nikkei Asia.

The contagion reportedly occurred at TSMC's "Fab eighteen" factory, which is said to exist the company'due south nearly advanced fleck-making facility. As the sole provider of fries for Apple, problems for TSMC have the potential to affect millions of dollars' worth of hardware.

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Indeed, Nikkei Asia'due south sources revealed that all processors for upcoming Mac and iPhone devices are produced at the factory in question. That clearly means the as-withal-unannounced iPhone 13, but too probable covers laptops expected to feature the rumored Apple tree M2 and M1X chips, including, perchance, a MacBook Pro 2021.

"Some TSMC production lines in the Southward Taiwan Scientific discipline Park received certain gases from suppliers that are believed to be contaminated," TSMC told the site. "These were quickly replaced with other gas supplies."

While the visitor said that assessments are underway to ensure product quality is unaffected, early on signs propose that it shouldn't accept as well much of an impact on production. TSMC said that the contamination didn't seem to have had a "pregnant impact on operations," and Nikkei Asia'southward unnamed sources seemed to confirm this, maxim that chip product had but been hit in a limited manner.

Anything worse could have been extremely bad news for Apple tree. The contamination was reportedly discovered on Th night, just a day after the visitor had warned investors about potential supply issues, due to the ongoing chip shortage affecting everything from PS5 restock to car production.

"We await supply constraints during the September quarter to be greater than what we experienced during the June quarter," Apple's chief financial officer Luca Maestri warned investors during the Q3 2021 earnings call. "The constraints will primarily impact iPhone and iPad."

Given he even so predicted "very stiff double digit year-over-year revenue growth during the September quarter," this could just be a instance of ensuring expectations don't go out of control, leading to anything only phenomenal growth seeming disappointing.

And so far, Apple has largely managed to avoid the worst effects of the global chip shortage. And even when warning about potential trouble forth the way, CEO Tim Cook was swell to signal out that supply constraints were largely on "legacy nodes" rather than Apple'south own silicon.

Simply the TSMC manufacturing plant gas contagion story is a timely reminder that even having your own exclusive production line doesn't brand you immune to unexpected problems. Thankfully, information technology sounds like the effect is mild plenty that it won't affect the iPhone xiii's rumored September reveal, only information technology may simply give Apple suspension for thought on how reliant it seems to be on just one factory.

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Freelance correspondent Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are plant all over the spider web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more probable, playing Spelunky for the millionth fourth dimension.