While there hasn’t been a ton of Apple Car news of late, a recent rumor through the supply chain has stated that Apple is said to be in “preliminary cooperation negotiations” with well-known automotive electronics suppliers as it continues to hire new employees from Tesla and other manufacturers. Apple is working with “upstream and downstream” electronics suppliers to ensure that it meets current regulations.
The current discussions have been likened to a “request for quotation” model, wherein Apple details its requirements and asks for pricing and other details from vendors.
Apple is also said to be working to establish a factory in the United States, and it’s thought that there’s currently a production plan in place with preliminary technology specifications.
Apple chip supplier TSMC is also said to be working with Apple on a “self-driving chip” at an R&D plant. TSMC is apparently collaborating with STMicroelectronics to further develop gallium nitride (GaN) technology that will be used in hybrid car converters and chargers that are thought to be related to the Apple Car project.
Apple is rumored to be en route to unveil an Apple Car in 2024 to 2025, sources in the supply chain having compared the model as “similar to Tesla.”
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
The Apple Watch has gone through a number of teardowns since its release on April 24. The newest release from Chipworks has revealed the wearable to feature 512MB of RAM, a Broadcom Wi-Fi chip, an accelerometer/gyrometer from STMicroelectronics, 30 individual components inside the 26mm x 28mm S1 package, a feat Chipworks calls “quite an accomplishment.”
Among the more interesting discoveries Chipworks has made is the manufacturing process for the APL0778 application processor (CPU/GPU). It was made with Samsung’s 28 nanometer LP process, which is no longer cutting edge technology. A 28-nanometer processor was also used in the iPhone 5s, while the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus used 20-nanometer A8 processors.
The fifth-generation iPod touch is now available and shipping. And, that being said, it’s time to dissect the new media player to see what makes it tick.
Per the super cool cats at iFixit that posted their most recent teardown, the disassembly also found that the volume buttons, microphone, LED flash and power button are all connected via the same ribbon cable that easily peels from the rear case.
“We’ve seen this type of design in previous Apple products,” the solution provider noted. “The shift to a single ribbon cable is more cost-effective for the manufacturer, but unfortunately it has a negative impact on repairability.”
The battery inside the iPod touch was described as a “Plane Jane” component with a rating of 1030 mAh, an increase from the previous model’s 930mAh. The battery is advertised to provide up to 40 hours of music playback on a single charge.
iFixit also found that the 4-inch Retina display on the fifth-generation iPod touch is inferior to the screen on the iPhone 5. It characterized the iPod touch screen as “a much simpler, cheaper design.”
The teardown also offers a closer look at the 5-megapixel camera Apple has put into the fifth-generation iPod touch. The lens is capable of recording high-definition 1080p video at 30 frames per second.
The full list of parts found in the fifth-generation iPod touch are included below:
– A5 Processor
Once again, the lunatics over at iFixit got their mitts on the new iPhone, got to work dissecting it and posted the results faster than anyone could believe it.
And, once again, they found some really cool stuff inside Apple’s newest handset.
Per iFixit’s full teardown report, the repair firm managed to snag a “black and slate” copy of the device in Australia, the first country to see official iPhone 5 availability, within the first hour of sales and proceeded to disassemble the device for its usual comprehensive teardown.
The first steps of revealing the innards of Apple’s most advanced smartphone include removing the small proprietary pentalobe screws that attach the unit’s 4-inch display to the aluminum “uni-body” back casing. A suction cup was used to easily lift the screen assembly away from the rear housing, a departure from the involved removal procedure seen with the iPhone 4 and 4S.
“Compare this to the iPhone 4s, where it took 38 steps to isolate the display assembly, and this iPhone may be the most repairable iPhone we’ve seen in a while,” iFixit wrote.
Next to be removed was the larger 3.8V, 5.45WH battery, which holds slightly more juice than the 3.7V, 5.3Wh part found in the iPhone 4S. In comparison, Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S III uses a 3.8V, 7.98Wh battery.
To the right of the larger power cell is the the logic board, which contains the high-performance A6 chip, baseband system, storage and a litany of other essential components.
With help from Chipworks, the logic board’s packages were identified:
– Skyworks 77352-15 GSM/GPRS/EDGE power amplifier module
– Avago A5613 ACPM-5613 LTE band 13 power amplifier
– Triquint 666083-1229 WCDMA / HSUPA power amplifier / duplexer module for the UMTS band
– STMicroelectronics LIS331DLH (2233/DSH/GFGHA) ultra low-power, high performance, three-axis linear accelerometer
– Texas Instruments 27C245I touch screen SoC
– Broadcom BCM5976 touchscreen controller
– Apple A6 Application processor
– Qualcomm MDM9615M LTE modem
– RTR8600 Multi-band/mode RF transceiver
According to iFixit, “many of the components that came out with the logic board are held in place with screws and brackets.”
Apparently Apple is very concerned with making sure that all the connectors are firmly seated and won’t rattle lose over time.
On the reverse is Apple’s A6 processor, which is said to be twice as fast as its A5 predecessor. A recent test using the SunSpider JavaScript benchmarking tool confirmed Apple’s new SoC is utilizing a different memory interface than normal ARM Cortex A9 chips as it outperformed identical processors based on the same ARM-patented technology.
The A6 is also though to be Apple’s first attempt at designing an ARM core in-house, however the internal architecture has yet to be investigated.
Wrapping up the teardown is a look at Apple’s new Lightning connector. There has been mixed emotions with the new plug, as the move away from Apple’s 30-pin design means the iPhone 5 may not work with legacy aftermarket accessories without an adapter. The company claims there was no way to make such a thin handset without the new connector, however, and said the standard is expected to be used for foreseeable future.
Overall, iFixit gives the iPhone 5 a “7 out of 10” score for repairability.
Since a video’s worth more than a thousand words, take a gander at what iFixit had to say:
In as much as the iPhone 4 has drawn criticism, it does sport some nifty new technologies.
Among this is its new gyroscope, which could find its way into a future revision of the iPad.
Per InformationWeek, UBMTechInsights took a look inside Apple’s new iPhone 4 and found it was made by STMicroelectronics. The three-axis MEMS gyroscope is made by the same company that produces the accelerometer found both the iPhone and iPad.
Steve Bitton, senior analyst with TechInsights, noted that there is an empty slot on the iPad motherboard, perfectly sized to fit the gyroscope found in the iPhone 4. It is also located next to the accelerometer, and within proximity of the application processor.
The discovery suggests that Apple originally planned to have a gyroscope in the iPad, released in April in the U.S., but ultimately decided to leave the sensor out of the first-generation hardware.
But the pin out on the iPad motherboard doesn’t match the STMicroelectronics gyroscope found in the iPhone 4 — instead, Bitton said, it resembles a competing three-axis sensor made by InvenSense.
“When Apple’s iPad first came out, the InvenSense gyro was the only three-axis digital gyro on the market, so Apple may have designed its board with that component in mind,” the report said. “Indeed, Apple may have included it in the iPad initially, but may have ultimately decided against using it in either device.”
The cool cats at iFixit have also conducted a closer look at the iPhone 4 gyroscope, with the help of Chipworks. It also revealed that the gyroscope is made by STMicroelectronics, labeled AGD1 2022 FP6AQ. The microelectromechanical system (MEMS) integrates electronic and mechanical components at a very small scale to measure the orientation of the device.
X-ray photos of the gyroscope found that it is nearly identifcal to the off-the-shelf STMicroelectronics L3G4200D model. It includes a “proof mass” that is displaced in X, Y and Z directions by Coriolis forces when a user rotates the phone. Another die found inside converts those capacitive signals into a digital form that can be interpreted by the iPhone 4.
The gyroscope allows for far more precise movements with the device. One of the first App Store offerings to demonstrate this capability is Eliminate:GunRange, a US$0.99 title from ngmoco, Inc. The software allows users to conduct virtual target practice by aiming their onscreen gun with precise movements of the device, something that is only capable with the gyroscope found in the iPhone 4.
