Apple's A5 Chip Now Made in the USA at Austin, TX Samsung Facility
Apparently, Apple's super-quick A5 chip, for the iPhone 4S and the iPad2, is no longer being manufactured overseas. It's still being built by Samsung; however, this chip is being designed in Samsung's new Austin, TX United States facility. The facility is said to be a massive 1.6 Million square foot complex; the size of nine football fields!
Interestingly, there are several other big names with semiconductor manufacturing in the Austin area: Freescale Semiconductor is based there and other chip companies, like ARM, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, also have facilities. Semiconductor companies find Austin attractive due to a steady stream of educated employees from the engineering school at the University of Texas at Austin. Here's a quote from the Reuters article with some more details,
Quote:
Samsung's factory is the largest foreign investment in Texas with a total investment of about $9 billion, according to Austin Chamber of Commerce.
Austin is also home to an Apple customer call center that deals with customer complaints in North America, Apple's biggest market. The Cupertino company employs thousands in that facility, who deal with calls ranging from complaints to support.
In fact, Austin has been unofficially nicknamed "Silicon Hills" because it is quickly becoming a secondary tech hub for the United States, next to Silicon Valley in California.
We are proud to share that this great city is where our offices are located too!
Source: BGR and Reuters
