Samsung makes the highly-praised 64-bit Apple A7 processor.

(Credit: Apple )

Call it a habit that Samsung and Apple just can’t break.

Their critical partnership in silicon is still strong, according to the CEO of chip industry tracker VLSI Research, Dan Hutcheson, who spoke with CNET in a phone interview, after returning from a trip to South Korea, the land of Samsung.

This came as a surprise to Hutcheson, who last year had all but written off Samsung as a supplier to Apple of future processors and other silicon.

“Just before the holidays I got [told] that this was going on. It was a big surprise,” he said.

Until then, Hutcheson believed that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer (aka foundry), was going to get most of Apple ‘s future processor business. That yet-to-come business would include processor generations beyond — or derivative of — the current A7 chip, which powers the iPhone 5S, iPad Air, and iPad Mini Retina.

Related storiesFirst of 64-bit Windows 8.1 tablets arrives, this one from HP … [Read more]