According to AppleInsider, Apple’s iPhone and iPad chip foundry TSMC were attacked by computer viruses, and several factories were shut down on Friday. After the factory equipment was infected with the virus, several TSMC factories have been discontinued. For TSMC and Apple, the timing of the chip manufacturing plant’s production suspension is horrible, because TSMC is currently working hard to produce chips for the new iPhone that Apple plans to release this fall.
TSMC has already controlled the spread of the virus, and some of the equipment in the affected factories have resumed production. Other stuff will not continue production until Sunday. Due to the long chip manufacturing process, disruptions in the production process can result in lost output for several weeks.Although the accident appeared to be a targeted attack, TSMC said the virus attack was not related to network intrusion. This is the first time that the TSMC production line has been shut down due to a virus attack.Lora Ho, a chief financial officer of TSMC, told Bloomberg that “TSMC has been attacked by viruses before. But this is the first time a virus attack has affected our production lines.“
TSMC did not comment on the production losses and affected customers. Traditionally, at the beginning of August each year, most of TSMC’s production capacity was used to produce A-series chips for Apple.For various iPhone components, Apple usually purchases from some suppliers, but the A-series chips are an exception – currently only a TSMC company supplies. The new iPhone released in 2018 may be equipped with an A12 chip.