First iPhone 5s teardown shows no major internal changes [u]

2»

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 37
    dreyfus2dreyfus2 Posts: 1,072member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by drblank View Post





    What is the reason why you are asking? Does it really matter? Is it just raw curiosity or is there some other reason?

     

    Don't know @flux8's reason, but assume a lot of people would like to know if DED's speculation in 

    http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/14/after-its-disastrous-exynos-5-octa-samsung-may-have-lost-apples-a7-contract-to-tsmc turns out to be true.

     

    So far, there are a lot of indications to the opposite, but no final proof. Anyhow, I do not think it is too relevant either way. The article contained a lot of truth and interesting facts, no matter if that conclusion was correct or not. Even people with a lot of insight into the business had endless discussions about the amount of transistors on this die size, all coming to different conclusions. Some claiming it must be Intel, some claiming it must be TSMC, some claiming it must be Samsung, some claiming you can't get to this transistor count at this size and 28 nm, others saying you can (as it seems GPU transistors, which make up a huge part of a SoC, can be much denser than CPU ones)... I have barely ever read so many mutually exclusive and 100% contrarian opinions on any topic outside religion and politics lately.

     

    At some point Samsung will lose Apple as a customer, everybody knowing Apple knows that. If this is today or tomorrow... what the?

  • Reply 22 of 37
    applguy wrote: »
    What do they do with the phones when they are done? Do they put them back together to see if they can assemble the phone like the Chinese?

    Sell it to Will It Blend .com
    http://willitblend.com/videos/view/129
  • Reply 23 of 37
    Wow! Would you look at the removable battery!!


    /s
  • Reply 24 of 37
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by drblank View Post





    What is the reason why you are asking? Does it really matter? Is it just raw curiosity or is there some other reason?

     

    What is the reason you are asking for the reason he is asking? Does it really matter? 

    Is it just raw curiosity or is there some other reason?

     

    ;)

  • Reply 25 of 37
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    But what does it taste like? Do these guys determine the estimated costs of the individual components?
  • Reply 26 of 37
    All these tear downs and no one has bothered to determine who made the A7 yet, I thought that was extremely newsworthy?!
  • Reply 27 of 37

    Never mind the A7, where's the M7, iFixit couldn't find it.

  • Reply 28 of 37
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by elmoofo View Post



    All these tear downs and no one has bothered to determine who made the A7 yet, I thought that was extremely newsworthy?!

     

    They have to start xraying inside the chip to determine actual manufacturer. Chip probably needs to be dismounted, all which takes time.

  • Reply 29 of 37
    We know it isn't Samesung; they were a deer in the headlights on announcement day. I think Apple will keep them around, making chips that were already announced and have been on the market. Save the capacity of the others for the new stuff. It's a fitting task for a company who has a habit of stealing. "Here. Make our old parts, since you are not to be trusted." It's kinda a slap in the face, and they could use it.
  • Reply 30 of 37
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    elmoofo wrote: »
    We know it isn't Samesung; they were a deer in the headlights on announcement day. I think Apple will keep them around, making chips that were already announced and have been on the market. Save the capacity of the others for the new stuff. It's a fitting task for a company who has a habit of stealing. "Here. Make our old parts, since you are not to be trusted." It's kinda a slap in the face, and they could use it.

    Actually you don't know whether Samsung is building the A7. With no official news to back yes or no for certain the pretty-well-connected Anandtech feels comfortable in saying it's still being supplied by Samsung.
    http://anandtech.com/show/7335/the-iphone-5s-review/2

    EDIT: Is that N62WPP3 stamped? N has denoted Samsung in the past hasn't it? Oddly the chip images leaked back in June had a K designation.
  • Reply 31 of 37
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member

    It amazes me that iFixIt go all the way to Melbourne to get a few hours head start on their teardown when they don't even have any good competition in the tear down space anyway. Maybe just the threat/possibility of competition arising is enough to make them do it.

  • Reply 32 of 37
    ascii wrote: »
    It amazes me that iFixIt go all the way to Melbourne to get a few hours head start on their teardown when they don't even have any good competition in the tear down space anyway. Maybe just the threat/possibility of competition arising is enough to make them do it.

    No different than last year:
    http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/20/ifixits_iphone_5_teardown_begins_hours_after_device_availability
  • Reply 33 of 37
    Looks like the guys at Chipworks found the M7!! here's their teardown: http://goo.gl/H65BgS
  • Reply 34 of 37
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    gamacp wrote: »
    Looks like the guys at Chipworks found the M7!! here's their teardown: http://goo.gl/H65BgS

    ... and claiming the A7 is a Samsung built component.
  • Reply 35 of 37
    gamacp wrote: »
    Looks like the guys at Chipworks found the M7!! here's their teardown: http://goo.gl/H65BgS

    Excellent! And welcome to the forum.

    So, Samsung after all. Guess they'll have the luxury of using one of their own smartphone OS to use once they finish Samsueing the 64-bit CPU. Not all HW competitors have that luxury though. No idea if Tizen or Bada is easily modifiable though.
  • Reply 36 of 37
    19831983 Posts: 1,225member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by The Big Ginger View Post



    Decap that A7 and put it under an electron microscope! I wanna see that chips layout!

     

    Oh yes - me too!!

  • Reply 37 of 37
    So which Imagination Technologies VXD is in the 5s? I have never seen this detail published anywhere... A list has been started for previous iPhones here:
    http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=143446&pid=1222243#pid1222243

    Their newer ones support HEVC/H.265 decoding! ;)

    http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/powervr-vxd.asp
Sign In or Register to comment.