Not good news for Intel or ARM but great news for Apple! A new note Wednesday from UBS Investment Research cited industry checks in forecasting that the Apple tablet will be powered by a processor designed by P.A. Semi and built by Samsung. Analyst Maynard Um said it would likely be a complex system on a chip design.
Um pegged Hon Hai Precision Co. as the manufacturer for the tablet, and said LG Display will likely supply most of the screens, with AUO being a second source.
Other parts noted by UBS were:
* Connectors from Chen Uei and Hon Hai
* Wintek, Sintek and TPK as touch suppliers
* Batteries from Simplo and Dynapack
* NAND flash memory from Samsung
* Broadcom to provide a "combo" chip for connectivity
The note said the tablet is expected to hit the market at some point in the first half of 2010.
"Key will be timing and price points, in order to asses how material it could be for suppliers," Um wrote. "In addition, how convincing the device will be could generate debate as per whether the tablet device category could be revived and help overall demand."
Apple purchased fabless chip designer P.A. Semi for $278 million in 2008. The company specialized in sophisticated but low-power designs
{source: http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/12/02/time_inc_demos_tablet_friendly_magazine_concept.html}
