Apple iPhone Chips Revealed To Have Been Affected By TSMC Virus Incident

Over the weekend, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced that some of its computer systems and fab tools were infected by a virus. Now sources are saying that the incident has affected the 7nm chips that are coming to Apple’s new iPhones.

Industry sources familiar with the matter told Digitimes Monday that the virus outbreak impacted TSMC’s major facilities including Fab 12 at the Hsinchu Science Park and Fab 15 at the Central Taiwan Science Park. The former focuses on the 12-inch fabrication process, while the latter is in charge of ramping up the foundry’s 7nm chip output.

The fabs were shut down for around 10 hours and thousands of wafers were damaged. Sources said that because of these, the 7nm chips for Apple’s iPhones were affected. Other 7nm chip vendors such as Nvidia, Qualcomm, HiSilicon, MediaTek and Xilinx are also expected to experience the slight impact of the incident.

The sources did not say the extent of impact the outbreak has on the 7nm chips. TSMC did previously say that it is anticipating 10 percent revenue from its most-advanced 7nm process technology in the third quarter and 20 percent in the four quarter. In an earlier update following the outbreak, the company disclosed that its July-September period could see a 3 percent loss due to delays in shipments.

TSMC CEO CC Wei addressed the issue during a press event on Monday and confirmed that the virus infection forced them to bring several fabs offline. He also confirmed that they have fully recovered from the incident, but they are still anticipating a negative effect on the firm’s third-quarter revenues. Instead of 3 percent from their initial projection, Wei said they are now anticipating an estimated 2 percent.

Apple has yet to react to the incident. The tech giant is currently focused on preparing its new products for its big fall event. Aside from the three new iPhones, Apple is also said to be working on a new lineup of more advanced iPad tablets, as well as new Apple Watch smartwatches.

IBTimes learned back in June that TSMC was in the process of accelerating its 7nm process production for Apple’s iPhones and its other clients. The world’s largest semiconductor foundry also revealed at the time that an improved version of its 7nm process, called N7 Plus, is scheduled to launch in 2019 with EUV lithography technology.