iPhone 5S Teardown
Apple 's newest smartphone models hit stores on Friday in many countries across the world and tech firms iFixit and Chipworks disassembled a device and examined its parts. They also took apart a 5C model.
Below we remind you of the basic specs of iPhone 5S:
- Apple A7 processor with 64-bit architecture
- M7 motion co-processor
- 16, 32, or 64 GB Storage
- 4-inch retina display with 326 ppi
- 8 MP iSight camera (with larger 1.5µ pixels) and a 1.2MP FaceTime camera.
- Fingerprint identity sensor built into the home button
Following are some of the key parts for the 5S model:
- Apple claims that the 5s has 10 hours of talk time on 3G. The unit iFixit checked had a a 3.8V - 5.92Wh - 1560mAh battery onboard, made by Desay Battery Co., Ltd in Huizhou, China.
- Touch ID, Apple's new fingerprint scanner, is essentially a bunch of very small capacitors that creates an "image" of the ridges on your finger. The sensor technology was developed by AuthenTec and bought by Apple a year ago.
- The back of the iSight camera is labeled DNL333 41WGRF 4W61W. DNL markings are consistent with the markings on the camera modules housing the Sony IMX145 also found in the iPhone 4s and on the iPhone 5. So it's probably a Sony module again.
- Murata Manufacturing Co's 339S0205 (based on the Broadcom BCM4334) Wi-Fi module.
- Chips from Avago Technologies (Avago A790720, A7900) and Skyworks Solutions (Skyworks 77810, 77355) are featured in the iPhone5S.
- Broadcom's BCM5976 chip is used for the touchscreen controller.
- Companies supplying parts for the new phone also include memory chipmaker SK Hynix (SK Hynix H2JTDG8UD3MBR 128 Gb (16 GB) NAND Flash) and radio-frequency chipmaker TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. (TriQuint TQM6M6224)
- The iPhone 5s includes chips from Qualcomm (PM8018 RF power management IC, Qualcomm MDM9615M LTE Modem, Qualcomm WTR1605L LTE/HSPA+/CDMA2K/TDSCDMA/EDGE/GPS transceiver) and Texas Instruments Inc (Texas Instruments 37C64G1).
- Two other Apple-labeled chips were identified on the backside of the logic board IC: Apple 338S1216 and Apple 338S120L. And of course, the Apple A7 APL0698 SoC. The A7 is advertised as providing twice the performance of the 5 (and 5c)'s A6 processor. It is an 64-bit processor but the bulk of the its performance gains do not come from any advantages inherent to a 64-bit architecture, but rather from the switch from the previous ARMv7 ISA instruction set to the newly-designed ARMv8. The A7 processor has been fabricated at Samsung's foundry.
- iFixit did not recognize Apple's M7 "coprocessor" chip, which is supposed to collect sensor data in the background, enabling new types of apps for fitness and public transit. But according to an analysis by Chipworks, the M7 processor, is hidden under a neoprene cover on the iPhne 5s' mainboard. It is an NXP LPC18A1 chip believed to be based on an ARM Cortex-M3 core. The core is used for realtime processing and translating of the inputs provided to it by the gyroscope, accelerometer and electromagnetic compass.
Following are some key points of the 5C model:
- The hardware design on the 5C appears more similar to the 5S than to the iPhone 5
- The 5C uses a Toshiba Corp 16 gigabyte flash memory chip