Who would have seen that coming? It turns out that the iPhone 4 and Google Nexus One share the same noise cancelation technology. The A1026 chip by Audience has finally been discovered as the technology behind the iPhone 4’s impressive noise cancelation.
While also demonstrating that the iPhone can never be dissected too much, the folks at iFixit have finally uncovered the magic of the device’s low power audio signal processor. Noise cancelation helps remove ambient and unwanted noise when the iPhone’s mic is turned on.
iFixit couldn’t actually identify the Audience chip in the iPhone 4’s original teardown.
“At the time, we rather ambiguously reported that it was “used to cut out ambient noise and improve sound quality.” What we didn’t know was whether Apple had invented their voice processor or was licensing third-party technology.”
It turns out that Apple is licensing the same technology that powered the popular Google Nexus One handset.
“There was one small, 3mm x 3mm chip that we weren’t able to identify during our teardown. It was white-labelled, meaning Apple asked the manufacturer to remove their branding from the package to make it difficult for folks like us to identify.
We like mysteries as much as the next guy, so we decided to dig further. Our friends at Chipworks just decapped the chip, and guess what they found? That’s right, an Audience low power audio signal processor.”
The iPhone 4’s noise cancellation technology is top notch, and the device outperforms every non-Audence powered phone the iFixit team has tested.
Here’s a demo of the iPhone’s noise cancelation technology:
Apple has never been one to slouch on having the best technology in its products. It’s comforting to see that principal in even the smallest aspects of the iPhone.
[AppAdvice]