First iPhone 4S Image Sensor to Be Identified Comes from Sony
Sony markings on iPhone 4S camera sensor dieWhile iFixit performed the first
thorough teardown of the iPhone 4S yesterday, Chipworks has now turned its more powerful equipment on the chips themselves, notably
identifying Sony as the manufacturer of the 8-megapixel camera sensor in the first iPhone 4S they examined.
In order to get our readers the device manufacturer as soon as possible, rather than going through a fuming sulfuric acid chip deprocessing we chose to use our infrared microscope to look through the structure of this image sensor. What you see are the die markings on the base layer of the image sensor. The image isn’t beautiful, but it’s enough to tell us that Sony is in our particular iPhone 4S.
OmniVision has historically been the supplier for the image sensor in the iPhone, but comments from Sony CEO Howard Stringer earlier this year started rumors that Sony might take over production for the iPhone 4S. Later reports had said the two companies would be splitting the load with OmniVision handling up to 90% of production, but issues at OmniVision were later said to have led to Apple shifting orders to Sony. Weak financial guidance from OmniVision further fueled rumors that it had lost at least a substantial portion of the iPhone business.
As Chipworks notes, a single test unit is not sufficient to establish the balance of production should Apple be employing a dual-supplier solution for the iPhone 4S camera sensor. But Sony is at least involved in production this time around, and additional results should give a better picture of where Apple's orders have fallen.
Top Stories
Serif today announced across-the-board updates for its popular suite of Affinity creative apps, including Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and the Apple award-winning Affinity Publisher for Mac, all of which were among the first professional creative suites to be optimized for Apple's new M1 chip.
"After another year which saw record numbers of people switching to Affinity, it's exciting to...
We've seen a lot of teasers about the Beats Studio Buds over the past month since they first showed up in Apple's beta software updates, and today they're finally official. The Beats Studio Buds are available to order today in red, white, and black ahead of a June 24 ship date, and they're priced at $149.99.
The Studio Buds are the first Beats-branded earbuds to truly compete with AirPods...
Google and the three major U.S. carriers, including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, will all support a new communications protocol on Android smartphones starting in 2022, a move that puts pressure on Apple to adopt a new cross-platform messaging standard and may present a challenge to iMessage.
Verizon recently announced that it is planning to adopt Messages by Google as its default messaging...
Wednesday September 25, 2019 12:02 pm PDT by
Juli CloverApple has teamed up with Maroon 5 to add the group's new song "Memories" to the Memories feature in the Photos app, allowing it to be used for photo slide show creations, reports Billboard.
"Memories" will be available as a soundtrack option for a limited time and it is available to iPhone and iPad users running the latest iOS 13 and iPadOS software.
Memories in the Photos app are created ...
Apple's next-generation iPhone 13 lineup will use Qualcomm's Snapdragon X60 5G modem, with Samsung to handle manufacturing of the chip, according to DigiTimes.
Built on a 5nm process, the X60 packs higher power efficiency into a smaller footprint compared to the 7nm-based Snapdragon X55 modem used in iPhone 12 models, which could contribute to longer battery life. With the X60 modem, iPhone...
The iPhone 13 is widely expected to come with Wi-Fi 6E capabilities, and while it may seem rather nuanced to the average consumer, with only improved speeds and being "up to date" in the realm of Wi-Fi technology, it's actually a fairly significant improvement, laying the groundwork for much of what we know the future holds.
To truly understand Wi-Fi 6E, MacRumors sat down for an exclusive...
The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro arrived in October 2020 in a range of color options, with entirely new hues available on both devices, as well as some popular classics. The 12 and 12 Pro have different color choices, so if you have your heart set on a particular shade, you might not be able to get your preferred model in that color.
iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12
The iPhone 12 mini and iPhone...
Wednesday April 21, 2021 6:38 am PDT by
Sami FathiApple yesterday announced a completely redesigned 24-inch iMac with the M1 Apple silicon chip. The new iMac, the first major redesign of the Mac desktop computer since 2012, has several changes compared to the previous generation.
In the aftermath of the event, a few new features and tidbits may have slipped under the radar, so we’ve compiled this list of some of the less-talked-about...
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller sat down with tech journalist Steven Levy for a wide-ranging interview about the smartphone's past, present, and future.
The report first reflects upon the iPhone's lack of support for third-party apps in its first year. The argument inside Apple was split between whether the iPhone should be a closed...
Apple recently dropped the $19.99 fee for OS X Lion and Mountain Lion, making the older Mac updates free to download, reports Macworld.
Apple has kept OS X 10.7 Lion and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion available for customers who have machines limited to the older software, but until recently, Apple was charging $19.99 to get download codes for the updates.
As of last week, these updates no...
Top Rated Comments
[LIST=1]
* CPU Design - Apple A5 - US
* CPU Manufacturing - Samsung - Korea
* Battery assembly - Foxconn? - China
* RF Transceiver - Qualcomm - US
* Power Amplifier - Skyworks - US
* Power Amplifier - Avago - US
* SAW Filter - TriQuint - US
* PA Duplexer - TriQuint - US
* Power amplifier - Avago - US
* WiFi/Bluetooth Design - Broadcom - US
* WiFi/Bluetooth Manufacturing - Murata - Japan
* Flash memory - Toshiba - Japan
* RAM - Samsung - Korea OR
* RAM - Elpida - Japan
* Accelerometer - STMicroelectronics - Switzerland
* Gyroscope - STMicroelectronics - Switzerland
* Power management - Dialog - Germany
* Camera - Sony - Japan
* Touch sensor - Texas Instruments - US
* Vibrate motor - Samsung (likely) - Korea
* Audio codec design - Cirrus - US
So US companies are still doing the bulk of the component design work.
Dare I feed the troll? OK...
1) What crappy cameras are you referring to, being sure to compare the referenced camera(s) to the comparably-priced competitors*, and,
2) How, specifically, does an apple logo on the enclosure make it not crapy?
This should be good...
*Feel free to compare the A77/NEX-7 with cameras costing 2x-4x as much...
-Mike
Lens; No. It is a 5-element design which is coupled tightly to the sensor - I cannot believe the whole assembly is not made by Sony. As an optical designer, I would love to get the optical design and analyze the limits of the imaging performance, but I can tell you it has improved distortion, sharpness, and color correction over the 4.
Software; Yes.
----------
- Milk shoots out nose -
Don't DO THAT while I'm eating my milk and cookies!!!
- Wipes tears of laughter from eyes, still cleaning out nostrils... -
You have no clue.