Chips

Intel has reportedly secured orders for a ‘significant portion’ of iPhone 7 cellular modems

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 4, 2016

Chip giant Intel has secured orders for a “significant portion” of cellular modems on Apple's upcoming iPhone 7, according to a note CLSA Securities analyst Srini Pajjuri sent to clients, a copy of which was obtained by NDTV.

The current iPhone 6s generation uses Qualcomm's MDM9635M LTE Cat. 6 cellular modem and the previous-generation iPhone 6 series is outfitted with Qualcomm's MDM9625M modem so if this particular analyst is right, Qualcomm is set to lose some serious money should Apple dual-source cellular modems for the next iPhone.

Read More

Can’t the Feds exploit San Bernardino shooter iPhone’s chips to break into encrypted data?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 28, 2016

The world's most powerful government has locked horns with the world's most powerful corporation in a battle that Apple implies has the potential to affect civil rights for a generation. As you know, the Justice Department gave Apple until February 26 to respond to its court order.

In it, the government is asking Apple's engineers to create a special version of iOS that would allow brute-force passcode attacks on the shooter's phone electronically.

Now, some people have suggested that the government's experts could make an exact copy of the phone's flash memory to brute-force its way into encrypted data on a powerful computer without needing to guess the passcode on the phone or demand that Apple create a version of iOS that'd remove passcode entry restrictions.

While this is technically feasible, the so-called de-capping method would be painstakingly slow and extremely risky, here's why.

Read More

iPad Air 3 and iPhone 5se will run A9X and A9 chips

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2016

A third-generation iPad Air will run an 'A9X' processor and an 'iPhone 5se' will be outfitted with Apple's 'A9' chip, according to Bloomberg Bussinessweek's profile of Johny Srouji, Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies.

“In March, Apple intends to announce an updated iPad and smaller-screen iPhone featuring the latest A9x and A9 chips, according to a person familiar with the plans, who wasn’t authorized to comment publicly,” reads a passage from the Bloomberg article.

Read More

Bloomberg profiles Apple’s silicon chief, gives a peek at secret chip-testing lab in Cupertino

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 18, 2016

Bloomberg Businessweek has published an interesting profile of Johny Srouji, Apple's silicon chief (official title: Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies), who joined the company back in 2008 to lead development of the A4, the first Apple-designed system-on-a-chip that made its debut in the iPhone 4 and the original iPad.

Apple is now widely praised by critics and fans alike for taking its chip destiny in its own hands. The article tells an in-depth story of how then CEO Steve Jobs had the foresight and courage to take Apple on a risky path to make it a fabless silicon designer.

Apple-designed mobile chips went on to differentiate iPhones and iPads on the  hardware level from competing devices using off-the-shelf parts. The story also gives us our very first peek at chip-durability testing at an unmarked Apple lab in Cupertino.

Read More

Rumor: iPhone 7 chips to be encapsulated in EMI shielding

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 16, 2016

Korean publication ETNews is claiming that Apple's upcoming iPhone 7 smartphone refresh will reduce electromagnetic interference by encapsulating major chips, including its application processor, into an electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding.

According to ETNews, key iPhone 7 chips such as the main 'A10' processor, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, cellular modems and RF chips will be protected by EMI shielding, which involves covering a chip's surface with ultra-thin metal. Prior iPhones have used EMI shielding on the printed circuit board and the connectors to reduce electromagnetic interference.

Read More

Sketchy rumor claims Apple’s been secretly working on its own GPU for years

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2016

Apple is making its own GPU to cut the cord from Imagination Technologies and has been secretly developing its own GPU in-house for a few years now. That's what a sketchy rumor published Thursday by Fudzilla contends, citing sources in the graphics industry.

An in-house-designed GPU would let Apple reduce the cost of its own mobile chipsets further. More importantly, such a move would help it advance the iPhone and iPad's graphics capabilities beyond what Imagination's designs (that Apple licenses) permit.

For end users, this should result in an even smoother iOS and flashier graphics in games (the overhyped term “console-quality” comes to mind) with more realistic special effects.

Read More

Analysts are confident that TSMC will grab 100% of Apple’s chipset business in 2016

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 10, 2015

Although the present-generation A9 and A9X processors are being built by both Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC) and Samsung, it appears that Samsung will be left out entirely from the lucrative contract to build the forthcoming A10 chipset for 2016 iOS devices.

Barron's on Thursday cited analyst Bonil Koo with investment bank UBS as saying that all A10 orders will be exclusively handled by TSMC, posing a major problem for Samsung.

Read More

iFixit gives Apple’s Smart Keyboard the lowest repairability score possible

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 24, 2015

Repair experts over at iFixit today pried open Apple's new $169 Smart Keyboard case for the iPad Pro.

As you know, the Smart Keyboard is covered in Apple's mysterious conductive fabric that actually connects the keyboard to the iPad Pro's Smart Connector and allows for a “two‑way flow of power and data.”

But more important than that, the accessory is completely glued together, which makes servicing next to impossible. In fact, the Smart Keyboard files as one of the least repairable devices iFixit has ever analyzed so small wonder they gave it a repairability score of zero out of ten, ten being the easiest to repair.

Read More

Apple Pencil packs in the smallest logic board iFixit has ever seen

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 19, 2015

According to a teardown analysis of the Apple Pencil performed by iFixit, Apple's optional Bluetooth stylus accessory for the iPad Pro packs in the smallest logic board that the repair firm has ever seen. Despite its minuscule appearance, Apple's engineers had to fold it in half to fit inside the Pencil's tiny enclosure.

As if that weren't enough, the Apple Pencil is choke full of other radical technological solutions, said iFixit.

Read More

Apple’s rumored 4-inch iPhone 6c apparently won’t run A9 chip after all

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 17, 2015

Reliable analyst who have been calling for a refresh to the now discontinued four-inch iPhone 5c may have gotten one detail wrong: it sounds like the device, expected to be branded under the 'iPhone 6c' moniker, will run Apple's A8 processor used in last year's iPhone 6 rather than the latest A9 chip powering the new iPhone 6s.

That's what Japanese blog Macotakara, which has a pretty good track record when it comes to Apple leaks, said this morning citing “credible sources” familiar with the device.

Read More

Benchmarks put iPad Pro’s A9X chip roughly on par with Intel’s 2013 Core i5

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 12, 2015

The powerful Apple-designed 'A9X' system-on-a-chip—the engine that drives the iPad Pro—outperforms its predecessor inside the iPad Air 2 by a large margin while offering approximately the same performance as Intel's Core i5 processor for notebooks from 2013.

In terms of graphics, the iPad Pro still manages to outperform the fluidness of the iPad Air 2 despite having more pixels on a bigger screen. That's the gist of a series of synthetic benchmarks that ArsTechnica ran as part of its massive review of the iPad Pro in order to determine just how speedy Apple's new tablet is.

Read More