Tag: A9 Chip

Apple’s Next iPhone May Have Intel Inside

Intel is looking to get a piece of Apple’s booming sales by taking a version of its cellular modem into Apple’s next iPhone, likely to be called iPhone 7, stated reports by VentureBeat. The partnership is yet to be official, though. As of now the two companies have exchanged words and work is already underway. So, you can expect Apple or Intel to come out with an official statement soon.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich

Apparently, Intel has an ‘army’ already working on the project. Around 1000 people are working to supply Apple’s next iPhone with Intel’s next-gen 7360 LTE modem. VentureBeats also reported that Apple will be sending some of its own crew to work with Intel. Meanwhile, Intel looks to take out Qualcomm from the top position of modem suppliers for Apple.

Currently, Qualcomm’s 9X45 LTE chip has been the modem for Apple’s handset. A few years ago, Infineon used to supply the iPhone with 3G modems before Intel bought the German semiconductor company. Apple then moved to Qualcomm and made it its modem supplier. Like with its A9 chip, Apple may dual-source the LTE modems from both Intel and Qualcomm if Intel comes through. However, nothing has been officially stated on this matter.

The current task ahead for Intel is to scale its 10-nanometer process so that it can work with Apple’s A9 chipset. This is one of the reasons that Apple has been attracted to Intel. Intel has both 14-nanometer and a new 10-nanometer process in the works. A 10-nanometer could yield faster and smaller processors. Apple is currently dual-sourcing its A9 chip from Samsung, which employs 14-nanometer process, and TSMC which uses 16-nanometer process.

The end goal for Apple is to have an SoC that is capable of holding both the processor and LTE modem on a single, small, fast and power efficient component and the fabrication of this can fall into Intel’s hands if all goes well. This is a “must-win for Intel” as it has been struggling to keep pace with Qualcomm, a source told VentureBeat.

October 17, 2015
iPhone 6s Users Facing Battery Problems Due to Faulty Samsung Chips

If you’ve got your money ready for the new iPhone 6s that is due to hit Indian stores on the 16^th of this month, you may want to make sure you buy the right one. The internet is buzzing with news of some iPhones 6s units having shorter battery life than others. The reason behind this is that there are two producers of the A9 processor – Samsung and TSMC.

Apparently, the chips from the two firms are not identical. Chipworks, a site that specializes in teardowns, noted that Samsung’s A9 processors use a 14-nanometer processor while TSMC uses 16-nanometer. Early testing revealed that Samsung’s A9 chip fares poorly on battery performance when compared to TSMC’s chip.

Apple’s partner-cum-rival Samsung has produced nearly half of the A9 chipset found in the latest iPhone 6s, while around 70% of iPhone 6s Plus phones have a TSMC processor. A Redditor recently posted tests of a pair of iPhone 6s Plus phones, one having Samsung’s A9 processor and the other having TSMC’s. It was found that TSMC gives an extra two hours of battery life compared to Samsung’s processor under identical conditions.

TSMC A9 Processor

Samsung A9 Processor

“Ran this test a couple times and results were consistent,” wrote Raydizzle on Reddit. “Always about a 2 hour difference in duration. Both phones were tested using the same backup, same settings. Also tried testing them as new phones and results were similar.”

Furthermore, you won’t be able to tell which processor you’re buying when you purchase the iPhone 6s. However, there is an app called Lirum Device Info Lite that can detect whether the new iPhone has a Samsung A9 processor or a TMSC one along with every other information regarding the specs of your device. Once you download the app, click on ‘Model’. If your model is N66MAP or N71MAP, you’ve got a TSMC chip. If it says N66AP and N71AP you got the Samsung one.

October 8, 2015
New Leaked Video of the Apple iPhone 6s Tells All

This is perhaps the most exciting leak for today – the much anticipated iPhone 6S has now been leaked. There is a video and some images showing us all we need to know, about the upcoming iPhone’s exciting features, such as, the Force Touch and the A9 chipset.

The images are said to reveal an iPhone 6s logic board with components such as the rear shell and battery, both of which enable the device to display a screen showing a gear icon. The video shows us the boot up process, logic board, LTE baseband modem and its radio frequency transceiver chip.

The first feature that we are most excited about, is perhaps the Force Touch, but the device that has been leaked does not prove the existence of the feature yet. However, there are some differences that have been noticed in this device, as compared to the iPhone 6, such as the shielding on the rear of the display being glued in place rather than screwed in.

Secondly, the pictures apparently also suggest that the iPhone 6s logic board will include Qualcomm’s WTR3925 radio frequency transceiver chip, in order to pair with the new modem for better cellular network.

Last but not the least, the pictures received by the source unfortunately do not show the presence of an A9 chip. The logic board seems to be a pre-production product unit and hence is said to be missing the A9 stamp and markings that could have revealed how much RAM is included in the package.

All this information however, has not been confirmed by Apple itself. So we will just have to wait until September 9th to see the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. The event is also rumoured to feature announcements including a revamped Apple TV with support for Siri control and third-party apps.

Source : [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_blank” link=”http://www.macrumors.com/2015/08/25/iphone-6s-boot-gear-screen/”]MacRumours[/tw-button]

August 26, 2015