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“Apple had planned to have its modem chip ready to use in the new iPhone models. But tests late last year found the chip was too slow and prone to overheating.

by pram 3y ago

“Apple had planned to have its modem chip ready to use in the new iPhone models. But tests late last year found the chip was too slow and prone to overheating. Its circuit board was so big it would take up half an iPhone, making it unusable.” How is this even possible? I mean I get it’s hard but a 3 inch modem chip? lol

aurareturn 3y ago
Wait, they needed testing late last year to figure out the chip was physically too big to be used in an iPhone? You're kidding right? Management didn't know until late last year? I call BS.
- scoutt 3y ago
  The chip might be small. The required board to use it can be big due to placements constraints, required extra components to make it work, space required for routing antenna traces, heat dissipation, etc. While at those engineering levels you can emulate and foresee all that, sometimes shit simply happens.
- mike_hearn 3y ago
  More likely that they wanted to get it working first, within power budget second, and shrinking the board to the needed physical sizes third, but they didn't get to second base.
- duped 3y ago
  > Wait, they needed testing late last year to figure out the chip was physically too big to be used in an iPhone? The area that a chip takes up is the physical size of the part, any passives it needs, and the space to route the traces to connect them all and meet noise/emf specs. It can take a very long time to figure out if a part is "too big" because it requires iterative design/redesign time by engineers, and it's not knowable before they begin working with the part.
re-thc 3y ago
> I mean I get it’s hard but a 3 inch modem chip? lol It's hard to work around all the patents from Qualcomm etc otherwise you'd get sued.
justcradd 3y ago
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justcradd 3y ago
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mrlambchop 3y ago
Sounds like an aneccode from a layperson who saw or heard about a bring up board (or protoboard) and went away with the wrong insight.

by pram 3y ago

aurareturn 3y ago

Wait, they needed testing late last year to figure out the chip was physically too big to be used in an iPhone? You're kidding right? Management didn't know until late last year? I call BS.

scoutt 3y ago
The chip might be small. The required board to use it can be big due to placements constraints, required extra components to make it work, space required for routing antenna traces, heat dissipation, etc. While at those engineering levels you can emulate and foresee all that, sometimes shit simply happens.
mike_hearn 3y ago
More likely that they wanted to get it working first, within power budget second, and shrinking the board to the needed physical sizes third, but they didn't get to second base.
duped 3y ago
> Wait, they needed testing late last year to figure out the chip was physically too big to be used in an iPhone? The area that a chip takes up is the physical size of the part, any passives it needs, and the space to route the traces to connect them all and meet noise/emf specs. It can take a very long time to figure out if a part is "too big" because it requires iterative design/redesign time by engineers, and it's not knowable before they begin working with the part.

re-thc 3y ago

> I mean I get it’s hard but a 3 inch modem chip? lol It's hard to work around all the patents from Qualcomm etc otherwise you'd get sued.

justcradd 3y ago

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justcradd 3y ago

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mrlambchop 3y ago

Sounds like an aneccode from a layperson who saw or heard about a bring up board (or protoboard) and went away with the wrong insight.