3G iPhone's firmware purportedly leaked, hints at assisted GPS

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
A late leak has allegedly revealed the inner workings of the next-generation iPhone's cellular chipset, down to its specific parts and most of its capabilities.



A source described as "reliable" handing information to Engadget appears to have confirmed several details, many of which reflect expectations set out by previous leaks.



In particular, the escaped data points to the use of the Infineon S-GOLD3 baseband chip spotted in beta firmware, which connects the device both to UMTS-based 3G networks that operate primarily in Europe as well as the newer, faster HSDPA networks present in North America, Europe, and many other parts of the world.



A trio of chips made by Skyworks -- the 77413, 77414, and 77427 -- address the phone's communications with specific 3G frequencies currently used around the globe, including the 850MHz band used in the US by AT&T as well as the 1900MHz and 2100MHz bands for other territories.



More significant, however, is the Global Locate Library software that abstracts assisted GPS commands.



The feature should allow the new iPhone to locate its position far more accurately than current solutions and is meant to interface with a Global Locate chip -- since branded as a Broadcom product -- built into a phone. Besides appearing to confirm the choice of Broadcom for built-in GPS, it also supports the addition of location-specific features added in test versions of iPhone 2.0 firmware, such as geo-tagging photos taken from the phone's built-in camera.



Supporting claims of authenticity, the purported source also alludes to an ARM 1176JZF-S processor identical to that in the original iPhone as well as a new internal build model number which is consistent with an earlier naming scheme.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 101
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    No mention is made of WCDMA, though the protocol is believed necessary for the SoftBank release in Japan.



    You may want to edit your post before AI's quality control gets put into question.



    Here are the PDFs from Skywork's website. They clearly state WCDMA/HSDPA
    SKY77427 (pdf) for Tx 1900 / Rx 2100 (UMTS-FDD Operating Band I)

    SKY77414 (pdf) for Tx/Rx 1900 (UMTS-FDD Operating Band II)

    SKY77413 (pdf) for Tx/Rx 850 (UMTS-FDD Operating Band V)
    And this chart is also very stateful: http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3...smtrackdk8.png



    Tri-band, which is what was expected, would work on the following networks:
    • 2100 (down) / 1900 (up) for Europe and Asia (usually referred simply as W-CDMA 2100)

    • 1900 (up/down)/ 850 (up/down) for America (AT&T, Rogers)

    • 850 (up/down) for Australia (Telstra NextG)
    This encompasses every country that Apple has partnered with. This does not, however allow for a 3G iPhone to function on T-Mobile USA. So all you with unlocked EDGE iPhones on T-Mobile have to jump to AT&T if you want to use 3G.
    • 2100 (down) / 1700 (up) for America (T-Mobile)
    It would have to be a quad-band chip to allow T-Mobile to function, but since they didn't get their spectrum that long ago and have no real 3G network it's a moot point.



    The GSM part is the standard quad-band for the 850/900/1800/1900 bands.





    PS: Anyone here able to estimate how much extra juice each of those bands will use when using internet over UTMS, based on the power usage listed in the supplied PDFs above?
  • Reply 2 of 101
    merdheadmerdhead Posts: 587member
    Geez, you're not wrong about quality control, Solipism. AI should stay away from the technicalities:



    3G = UMTS = WCDMA and HSDPA is used in Europe and most other places, not just in America see here for details - http://www.3gamericas.org/pdfs/Globa...tus_Update.pdf



    The way the post reads it just makes AI sound totally clueless.
  • Reply 3 of 101
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Damn, I was going to remove the intro to my post if the article was changed before another posted about it. Oh well.





    The PDF you supplied is interesting. I was wondering why the HW for the iPhone doesn't list HSUPA anywhere, but according to that PDF there are very few carriers with HSUPA active. And all but one, I think, is under a year old with most of them well under 6 months. Japan doesn't/didn't even have it with NTT DoCoMo until this month.
  • Reply 4 of 101
    merdheadmerdhead Posts: 587member
    Did you not want to be rude, Solipsism? Why not, I really enjoy it. Anyway, might as well call a spade a spade. Maybe a little abuse will make them change their ways.



    AI's pretty good with the rumours, but their analysis is really poor. They should get someone technical on staff or just report the news. Their reviews are pretty bad as well.
  • Reply 5 of 101
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Well, at least they're not this guy. (Thanks to Gruber)



    Writing for CNN Money, he opines:



    Quote:

    Just how will Apple meet expectations? Using the patent application as a guide, Apple appears to be making room on the iPhone for flash memory, which means an end to Apple's standoff with Adobe (ADBE) that's kept iPhones from easily viewing a plethora of Internet videos.



    Yes, it's true, you're not hallucinating, someone claiming expertise in scoping out Apple's plans by pouring over patent filings doesn't know the difference between Flash the software and flash memory chips. And confuses the two in such a way as to reach a hilariously wrong conclusion. In print. So we can see it.



    Bet his nickname over at CNN is "flash" right about now, and will be for all time.



    So take heart, Apple Insider!
  • Reply 6 of 101
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by addabox View Post


    Well, at least they're not this guy. (Thanks to Gruber)



    Writing for CNN Money, he opines:







    Yes, it's true, you're not hallucinating, someone claiming expertise in scoping out Apple's plans by pouring over patent filings doesn't know the difference between Flash the software and flash memory chips. And confuses the two in such a way as to reach a hilariously wrong conclusion. In print. So we can see it.



    Bet his nickname over at CNN is "flash" right about now, and will be for all time.



    So take heart, Apple Insider!



    That, my friends, is what we call an Epic Fail.
  • Reply 7 of 101
    merdheadmerdhead Posts: 587member
    Yeah good to see that AI have not quite sunk to the bottom yet.



    On that subject, I think this whole 'stand-off' idea is BS. The bottom line is that the performance of flash video is going to be crap on the iPhone because of a lack of hardware acceleration, so it's going to gobble up juice and give the user a poor experience. Apple is rightly trying to avoid this. I'm sure they'd love flash video on their machines.
  • Reply 8 of 101
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by merdhead View Post


    Did you not want to be rude, Solipsism? Why not, I really enjoy it. Anyway, might as well call a spade a spade. Maybe a little abuse will make them change their ways.



    It's the weekend, it's probably the middle of the night that it was for whomever typed it up. Maybe they were throwing a few back or were sleeping when woken up by Kasper to get it written. I like to be lenient between my asshole moments it keeps the Gods guessing.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by addabox View Post


    Yes, it's true, you're not hallucinating, someone claiming expertise in scoping out Apple's plans by pouring over patent filings doesn't know the difference between Flash the software and flash memory chips. And confuses the two in such a way as to reach a hilariously wrong conclusion. In print. So we can see it.!



    I hope he usually doesn't write about the progress of tech companies. Perhaps their middle school nerd that writes their tech articles was probably at programming camp all week and so he had to step in.



    I wonder if the patent mentioned WCDMA which is why it was addressed in the CNN article as a possibility for the iPhone as I don't recall anything in that patent filing that alluded to anything like that.
  • Reply 9 of 101
    merdheadmerdhead Posts: 587member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    Damn, I was going to remove the intro to my post if the article was changed before another posted about it. Oh well.





    The PDF you supplied is interesting. I was wondering why the HW for the iPhone doesn't list HSUPA anywhere, but according to that PDF there are very few carriers with HSUPA active. And all but one, I think, is under a year old with most of them well under 6 months. Japan doesn't/didn't even have it with NTT DoCoMo until this month.



    I think there a couple of points to be made about HSUPA:



    - it's not been through the design process and made efficient and effective. Getting things into small phones and making them actually work is not really very easy. The engineers generally have to have a couple of goes at it before they get it right. Saying that the iPhone chipset is 'upgradable' to HSUPA is one thing, getting to work well is another.



    - it's going to suck juice really badly. Keep in mind that when you are downloading you can have the base station (cell tower) do a lot of processing (encoding) at no cost to the handset. Uploading means that the work is done on the handset and also the signal has to improve if the base station is going to receive it at a reasonable rate.



    - where is the market demand for fast uploads? Who really needs it badly, today? Most people send some emails, maybe with attachments, but are they going to really notice how long it takes for an email to be sent? Is 384K good enough for most people? More is better, but if slays your battery you're not going to be very happy.



    It's interesting to note that Nokia have not released a HSUPA phone, and they are considered to have some of the best RF and analog engineers around, and that;s where most of the difficulties will lie. If they can't pull it off, chances are almost no-one can, or would want to.
  • Reply 10 of 101
    retroneoretroneo Posts: 240member
    The article is incorrect.



    Assisted GPS still requires a GPS receiver in the handset. It still requires the satellites to be in the sky. However it improves GPS performance such that it can be used in urban canyons.



    Assisted GPS downloads the ephemeris and almanac data over the internet instead of over the satellites, making positioning much quicker. The handsets internet connection (up to 7200000bps) is much faster downloading this information than the 50bps GPS signal.



    Assisted GPS can thus get a fix in less than 5 seconds.
  • Reply 11 of 101
    winterspanwinterspan Posts: 605member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    3G iPhone's firmware purportedly leaked, hints at *SNIP*



    AI, there is no excuse for all the crap information in this post. I am not an engineer, nor do I understand the complexities of RF engineering or telecommunications, but It really isn't difficult to do basic research and keep up with the meaning of different technologies. I mean to not know W-CDMA is the air interface to UMTS after 12 months of 3G iphone speculation? For god sakes...



    And after all the corrections, you still imply that North America is the pinnacle of HSDPA networks, and Europe is in the dark ages of plain UMTS. This couldn't be further from the truth. Most of western europe has HSDPA deployed. Please fix that error in the article.
  • Reply 12 of 101
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Seeing as how the Americas will use the 850 and 1900 Bands, and Europe, Oceania, Asia and Africa will use the 2100 Band, is it possible to turn to off the unneeded chip or chips? Are they designed to be always be ready to activate? Would it not be beneficial to turn it/them off if you weren't going to use them?
    (Yes, I know there is an on/off switch for 3G. I am not talking about that, I'm talking about turning off the one or two radios that you will not be using if you are to stay segregated to the continents as listed above)



    PS: This would have been so much easier had the Americas got on board with 2100 (band I). Was it being used by something else?
  • Reply 13 of 101
    enzosenzos Posts: 344member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by winterspan View Post


    AI, there is no excuse for all the crap information in this post. I am not an engineer, nor do I understand the complexities of RF engineering or telecommunications, but It really isn't difficult to do basic research and keep up with the meaning of different technologies. I mean to not know W-CDMA is the air interface to UMTS after 12 months of 3G iphone speculation? For god sakes...



    And after all the corrections, you still imply that North America is the pinnacle of HSDPA networks, and Europe is in the dark ages of plain UMTS. This couldn't be further from the truth. Most of western europe has HSDPA deployed. Please fix that error in the article.



    Why so serious, Mr Cranky? So what if some Spotty Herbert at AI can't tell an HSDMA-arse from a CDMA-elbow? At least they're up-to-date and reasonably reliable in the gist of their reports.



    The misuse of 'purportedly', on the other hand, is a bit of a worry.



    Enz
  • Reply 14 of 101
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by addabox View Post


    Well, at least they're not this guy. (Thanks to Gruber)



    Writing for CNN Money, he opines:

    Quote:

    Just how will Apple meet expectations? Using the patent application as a guide, Apple appears to be making room on the iPhone for flash memory, which means an end to Apple's standoff with Adobe (ADBE) that's kept iPhones from easily viewing a plethora of Internet videos.







    Yes, it's true, you're not hallucinating, someone claiming expertise in scoping out Apple's plans by pouring over patent filings doesn't know the difference between Flash the software and flash memory chips. And confuses the two in such a way as to reach a hilariously wrong conclusion. In print. So we can see it.



    Bet his nickname over at CNN is "flash" right about now, and will be for all time.



    So take heart, Apple Insider!



    wow.. just WOW!!!



    I laughed, then tears came, now my face hurts. thats just, BEYOND words!
  • Reply 15 of 101
    imacfpimacfp Posts: 750member
    You can't use a current iphone on a 3g network right? Can edge get any faster? It's not bad, at least not as slow as people have said. So long as you're patient it works on most sites.
  • Reply 16 of 101
    walshbjwalshbj Posts: 864member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by addabox View Post


    Well, at least they're not this guy. (Thanks to Gruber)



    Writing for CNN Money, he opines:







    Yes, it's true, you're not hallucinating, someone claiming expertise in scoping out Apple's plans by pouring over patent filings doesn't know the difference between Flash the software and flash memory chips. And confuses the two in such a way as to reach a hilariously wrong conclusion. In print. So we can see it.



    Bet his nickname over at CNN is "flash" right about now, and will be for all time.



    So take heart, Apple Insider!



    I think my father might have written that. The other day he asked me if he should switch from Yahoo! to Firefox.
  • Reply 17 of 101
    tednditedndi Posts: 1,921member
    I wonder if the true nature of apple's plans was inadvertently shown in Apple's

    "homage" the postal service's video Such Great Heights.





    Apple, in their commerical used the Intel Chip insted of The Postal Service's original chipset made by skyworks.



    http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/blog3/?p=647



    http://www.youtube.com/swf/l.swf?vid...Nc2nWaIFr77kYJ



    The chipset on the right was from Skyworks.....



    Imagine the possibilities....
  • Reply 18 of 101
    moveteammoveteam Posts: 7member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by imacFP View Post


    You can't use a current iphone on a 3g network right? Can edge get any faster? It's not bad, at least not as slow as people have said. So long as you're patient it works on most sites.



    No you can't. EDGE in Denmark (large cities like Copenhagen) the speeds range from 400-600 Kbps, while HSPDA is 7.2 mbit (rumored 3G iPhone), soon up to 20 MBit (which the new iPhone doesn't support)
  • Reply 19 of 101
    kerrybkerryb Posts: 270member
    GPS? Someone please tell me why GPS is so important for anyone to have? I always know where I am don't you?
  • Reply 20 of 101
    i am wondering if a-gps includes real (satellite-based) gps?!



    i am really keen on using the 3g iphone as a navigation device in my car.



    and i would like to used it for free (like normal gps) and not pay an extra fee for having to be data-connected to your cellphone gsm/3g provider.



    i am wondering if there will be any normal navigation software like tomtom or so for the 3g iphone. i dont quite know how a-gps works and if there is a slight chance that 3g-iphone ONLY has a-gps and NO real gps. ;-( (wikipedia doesnt help there, really...)



    what i mean is: what happens with a-gps if there is really no telephony-signal (GSM or umts or whatever) and you want to navigate / locate?! there must be a fallback for something that is satellite-based...
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