Inside Apples A7 Chip M7 Motion Coprocessor and More from the iPhone 5s
At its media event introducing the new iPhones earlier this month, Apple highlighted several chip innovations included on the iPhone 5s including a new A7 main chip with one billion transistors and a smaller M7 "motion coprocessor" designed to efficiently measure accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass data and thus allow for enhanced fitness tracking , navigation, and more. Chipworks and iFixit have now posted a teardown revealing whats inside these chips, as well as several other components of the iPhone 5s, offering an interesting first glimpse at these components at the heart of the device. In looking at the A7, Chipworks noted that it is indeed manufactured by Samsung using its 28-nm process node. Apple has been seeking to shift its A-series chip production from Samsung to TSMC, but TSMCs chip production will reportedly not start until early 2014. Gate pitch comparison of A7 and A6 (click for larger) For the A7, Apple and Samsung have reduced spacing between transistors ...