Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, which has boosted its
profile in the chip-manufacturing industry by inking deals with
Apple, has added LG Electronics to its list of customers for the
high-tech chipsets used in smartphones.
LG Electronics said Friday it has developed its own
microprocessor to power a variation of its flagship G3 smartphone
-- a first for the South Korean electronics giant. Thus far, LG has
relied mainly on Qualcomm for the chips that run its
smartphones.
"The chips will be made by TSMC, as LG doesn't have chip
factories," said a person familiar with the matter. He said LG and
TSMC have been working together for months to develop the new
chipset, dubbed Nuclun, but didn't provide further details.
Specifications for the Nuclun aren't quite at top-notch level,
but they are similar to the chips that power other premium
smartphones, according to LG. For example, one version of Samsung
Electronics's Galaxy Note 4 smartphone comes with a mobile
processor similar in structure to the Nuclun, just slightly
faster.
With the new push into chip development, LG said it was aiming
to further diversify its product strategy against stronger
competition. Following a period of losses, LG's mobile unit has
been in recovery in recent months thanks to a better-than-expected
reception for the company's G3 model, which was launched earlier
this year. The company is scheduled to release its third quarter
results next week.
"Nuclun will give us greater flexibility in our mobile strategy
going forward," Park Jong-seok, the head of LG's mobile business,
said in a statement.
But it's too early to tell if LG's internally-developed chipsets
will bring the company success. Making the right microprocessor has
been a challenge even for Samsung, which has a long history of
expertise in chip making, analysts say. Samsung-branded mobile
processors, called the Exynos series, haven't been a popular
choice, even for its Galaxy lineup of smartphones.
LG used to have its own chip business, but divested the division
in the wake of the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s as a
part of a broad restructuring of the country's conglomerates.
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