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Topic: Processors

iPhone 4 mystery chip identified

Summary: When the great folks at iFixit did a teardown of the iPhone 4 back in the summer of last year they came across a mystery chip that they couldn't ID. Well, now that mystery has been solved.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

By for Hardware 2.0 |

When the great folks at iFixit did a teardown of the iPhone 4 back in the summer of last year they came across a mystery chip that they couldn't ID. Well, now that mystery has been solved.

Here's the chip on the mainboard of the GMS iPhone 4:

And here's the same chip in the CDMA-variant of the iPhone 4:

So what is it? Well, iFixit could take the suspense no more and got Chipworks to decap the chip and discovered a name:

So what is it? It is a low-power digital audio signal processor used by the iPhone for noise-cancelling.

Mystery solved!

Here's a video of the noise-cancelling technology, which iFixit say outperforms every non-Audience powered cell phone, in action:

Topics: Processors, Hardware, iPhone, Mobility, Networking, Smartphones

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19 comments
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  • RE: iPhone 4 mystery chip identified

    The question is, which phones have Noise Canceling Chips like this?

    We know it was in The Nexus One as Well but it would help if they put up a list of vendors using their products.
    slickjim
    Reply Vote

    • RE: iPhone 4 mystery chip identified

      @Peter Perry More importantly...what's it cancelling besides noise? :)
      bigsibling
      Reply Vote

      • This Audience's chip is custom-designed for Apple, which, obviously, ...

        @bigsibling: prohibited the company to even list itself among Audience's clients: http://www.audience.com/about/products.php

        There at least five standard DSP for noise cancellation -- cheaper and pricier. Which in which smartphone is not announced. The quality of noise cancellation is different among these variants, too -- there is no test if iPhone's custom chip is better or worse than in any other phone.
        DDERSSS
        Reply Vote

      • RE: iPhone 4 mystery chip identified

        @bigsibling

        Well, in my opinion Steve Jobs is ____ _____ ____ _____ ____ _______.

        Sent from my ipad.
        SlithyTove
        Reply Vote

    • RE: iPhone 4 mystery chip identified

      @Peter Perry
      http://www.audience.com/about/enabled-products.php

      Not just the iPhone. Samsung and HTC amongst others use it too.
      dazzlingd
      Reply Vote

      • The most interesting, however, is not even that the chip is by Audience, ..

        @dazzlingd: .. but the fact that this is custom chip, which is not available for other manufacturers. And, corrspondingly, Audience is not listing Apple as user of any its standards five variants of chips.
        DDERSSS
        Reply Vote

      • Why is that an issue?

        @denisrs Apple designs a lot of the technology it uses in their product. Since technically they don't own any factories, Apple may license the technology for manufacturing to "preferred partners". Because the design is not theirs, they can't claim Apple as a user ... because they aren't users.<br><br>It is no different than what HP, Dell or even MS do (for example).
        wackoae
        Reply Vote

  • RE: iPhone 4 mystery chip identified

    I personally like the fact that cellphone makers are working to eliminate background noise. What bothers me is the fact that there is so much electronic background noise that can be used for nefarious purposes.
    Rick_K
    Reply Vote

  • One word

    Impressive
    DS-Solutions
    Reply Vote

  • RE: iPhone 4 mystery chip identified

    still not seen shoot out between ipad and blackbeery play whats up with that Adrein.no one what to show that their is a better devive out .
    sarai1313@...
    Reply Vote

  • RE: iPhone 4 mystery chip identified

    Can't deny they picked a great noise cancelation chip for the iPhone 4. I just wish they would stop sneaking crap into their little use agreements.
    chrlsrchrdsn
    Reply Vote

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