Apple warned by US lawmakers over using Chinese YMTC chips in new iPhone
- Reference: 1662990313
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/09/12/apple_memory_china_ymtc/
- Source link:
Apple currently sources NAND flash from Korean giants Samsung and SK hynix, as well as Japanese producer Kioxia ( [1]formerly known as Toshiba Memory Corporation ). It also buys RAM from SK hynix and Samsung, making its supply chain heavily reliant on Korea.
The lawmakers in question were Marco Rubio, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee (R-Florida), and Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who is on the House foreign affairs committee and would potentially lead that committee if his party wins control of the House of Representatives in November's midterm elections. Democrats currently hold a slight majority in the House and Republicans are aiming to reclaim control.
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The pair were speaking to business daily the [3]Financial Times .
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"Apple is playing with fire," Rubio told the FT. "It knows the security risks posed by YMTC. If it moves forward, it will be subject to scrutiny like it has never seen from the federal government."
McCaul added: "This could very likely devastate the memory chip market and give China even more control of this critical national security technology."
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The pair were reacting to unconfirmed reports that YMTC had been added as a supplier from news site [7]Business Korea .
We asked Apple about this. The manufacturer typically divulges nothing at all about manufacturers of individual components at launch. Only subsequent teardowns of the iPhone 14 could confirm YMTC as a NAND supplier, and most folks will be waiting for a specialist to take it apart. Then there's the fact that repeated queries about YMTC from the US government have reportedly not borne fruit.
The company told the FT it was "evaluating sourcing from YMTC for NAND chips" for some iPhones, but clarified that it would be only in devices "sold in China."
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Apple currently uses NAND flash from Kioxia in the iPhone 13, pictured below (surrounded by the red rectangle). Repair specialist iFixit last sliced open the phone in September 2021, when it noted Apple had stuck to its unfriendly approach to third-party and DIY repairability, although the vendor has since floated plans to make this a little easier with its [9]Self Service Repair Store .
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Kioxia NAND in the iPhone 13 (click to enlarge). Pic via: [11]iFixit
The vendor will ship the [12]iPhone 14 (from $799) this Friday (September 16) and iPhone 14 Plus ($899+) on October 7. The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max (the highest end model has a [13]1TB capacity ) also start shipping on September 16, although pre-orders are open.
It's not the first time YMTC, China's top NAND flash manufacturer, has been whispered about as an additional storage supplier for the iPhone.
[14]Apple debuts iPhone 14, Watch 8, other sparkly things
[15]Elon Musk claims SpaceX was in talks with Apple on iPhone 14 satellite services
[16]Apple Silicon takes a back seat at iPhone-heavy launch event
[17]Apple to replace future iPhone Lightning port with USB-C next year, this guy claims
Rumors that Cupertino was considering diversifying its memory chip supply chain first surfaced in March this year, with Bloomberg [18]sources already claiming that China was in the mix. The March reports came shortly after contamination disruption at Kioxia, based in Japan, exposed the risks to Apple's global supply.
In February [19]Kioxia and Western Digital said their 3D NAND fab facilities had lost "at least" 6.5 exabytes in flash availability. Adding to the mystery and uncertainty, the contaminated chemical substance and its supplier were never identified, with little insight into whether the debacle could happen again. We'll update this article if Apple responds. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2019/07/18/toshiba_memory_corp_rebrand_kioxia/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Yx9XlQXtlgD7TZvklq81vAAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.ft.com/content/099a409a-49c2-4ed3-a630-87bf6dc8ce15
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yx9XlQXtlgD7TZvklq81vAAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yx9XlQXtlgD7TZvklq81vAAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Yx9XlQXtlgD7TZvklq81vAAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=99901
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Yx9XlQXtlgD7TZvklq81vAAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/27/apple_self_repair_service_launches/
[10] https://regmedia.co.uk/2022/09/12/kioxia_nand_iphone13.png
[11] https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+13+Pro+Teardown/144928
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/07/apple_iphone_watch_launch/
[13] https://www.apple.com/iphone-14-pro/specs/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/07/apple_iphone_watch_launch/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/09/elon_musk_starlink_iphone/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/07/apple_silicon_iphone/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/12/apple_lightning_usbc/
[18] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-31/apple-said-to-weigh-more-memory-chip-suppliers-including-china?srnd=technology-vp
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/10/kioxia_wd_chemical_contamination_flash_fabs/
[20] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Land of the Free...
For a republican he does a good job of looking like he's from a communist nation.
Another pathetic soundbite attempt
I mean... iOS already supports ALSR and everything in the device's NAND storage is encrypted, as he may remember when he was saying Apple should decrypt some guy's phone for the FBI a few years ago, so while I suppose there may be a very narrow set of circumstances where Rubio is correct (I feel violated) it would require a considerable amount of effort for this to be actively exploited... AND, even if it were, there's no way a potential Chinese spy could guarantee that Politician X used a device with the compromised chips. You'd have to rely on old school espionage techniques of getting an operative close enough, for long enough, that they could clone the old device and replace it, while somehow reprogramming the IMEI and serial number on the replacement device to match that of the original. While it's not impossible someone could do that, it'd be a lot easier to just hack their email account or get compromising photos of them with a high priced prostitute.
Re: Another pathetic soundbite attempt
It's nothing to do with Chinese spying. It is American protectionism because it can't compete fairly.
Reporting at DigitimesAsia provides some more background:
https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20220912VL202/apple-ymtc.html
Apple, however, clarified that it was not considering using YMTC chips for iPhones sold outside of China, telling the Financial Times that it was "evaluating sourcing from YMTC for NAND chips to be used in some iPhones sold in China."
and...
"However, YMTC is partially state-owned, with the Chinese government holding 24% of the stake in the company. [...] In addition, governmental subsidies received by YMTC have become a source of major concern for US lawmakers, fearing its impacts on the global memory chip industry and subsequently the security of global data storage."
Apple may not be considering YMTC chips being used outside China, but it will happen. I mean where to a good proportion of SIM-free phones come from? Especially at the lower end of the price bracket for high end equipment - where they flog the China editions for peanuts (flashing to your native country's ROM is part of the price), when compared to the country's native SIM-free editions.
Grey market
If the 3rd party export of iPhones that where meant for the Chinse market became significant Apple would stop it very quickly. So quickly your head would spin!
(DR-State)
Is this another sign of the inevitable absorption of el rag (PBUH) into Silly Clown Valley? Can we instead not have this little affectation tagged on everywhere? It matters little which state they come from, it matters less which football team they support.
We can magnify our irrational personal biases by flag-waving in the pages that are actually about politics in some way.
(And while we're on *that* subject is it really news that the runners up are hoping to win their league in the next season? Complete waste of a paragraph.)
Apple needs to bolt from the US
Every time you turn around some dumb protectionist politician is meddling with US businesses, EU businesses, Japanese Businesses, Korean businesses, and Dutch ASML. When will the world tire of this? Yesterday?
Land of the Free...
to do what you are told.
Rubio is a well-known psycho.