14 DAY TRIAL // According to a Chinese source that previously shared correct information about the current Apple A9 SoC, the A10 chipset that should be released next year will supposedly come with a six-core architecture.
Considering Apple's conservative attitude until now regarding the number of cores they used in their processors, with the A8x being the single CPU with a triple-core architecture and the rest of them being all dual-core chipsets, it's quite hard to imagine something like this happening.
According to the Weibo post behind this rumor, "Apple is developing the next generation A10 architecture, will focus on the development of multi-threading, up to 6 core is 10nm or 14nm, Samsung, TSMC, Intel 14nm process also rob on the order." (translated from Chinese using Google Translate)
Therefore, Apple should also use a 10 to 14 nm semiconductor technology that would be an expected choice, considering the way things have evolved between each Apple SoC generation until now.
Apple has changed the semiconductor tech from 32nm used in the A6 SoC to a 28 nm one in the A7 processor and down to 20 nm in the A8 and A8x chipsets.
The A10 having multiple manufacturers hints at a possible large order made by Apple next year in preparation for a big device launch
Furthermore, the source also mentions Samsung, TSMC and Intel will be the new CPU's manufacturers, which hints at the large number of A10s Apple is planning to order for next year.
Given that Apple draw so much performance out of dual-core processors, we can only guess how much more powerful a hexa-core A10 processor would be if the source's information proves to be true.
All these should still be taken with a grain of salt even though the source has proved to be reliable in the past and managed to provide quality info about the A9 processor a year ago.