The teardown finds that the iPhone SE is more than just a new generation of smaller iPhone from Apple, but that it’s actually a very clever device that takes the best from the performance world and combines it with the economics of older devices. This allows Apple to provide a product at a cheaper cost, but with similar performance.
The processor inside the iPhone SE is indeed the same A9 processor found in the iPhone 6s, and the part in the iPhone SE Chipworks took apart was labeled with an APL1022 part number from a TSMC facility. It includes SK Hynix memory, which Chipworks says is likely the same 2GB LPDDR4 DRAM module found in the iPhone 6s.
The date codes might actually tell a story: the decapped application processor chip is dated 1535, Aug/Sep last year, so it was sitting in inventory for a while; the memory is 1549, last December; and presumably the whole package-on-package was assembled this year at the end of January.
From the iPhone 6s, the iPhone SE shares the following hardware pieces with the same part numbers:
- TSMC A9 CPU and M9 co-processor (APL1022)
- Hynix 2GB DRAM module (LPDDR4)
- NFC chip (NXP 66V10)
- InvenSense 6-axis sensor
- Cirrus Logic audio IC
iPhone SE has the following components shared with the iPhone 5s:
- Broadcom BCM5976 tracking controller
- Texas Instruments 343S0645 touch screen controller
And lastly, iPhone SE also shares with the iPhone 6 the following parts:
- Qualcomm MDM9625M modem
- WTR1625L RF transceiver
But that’s not to say the iPhone SE doesn’t bring anything at all new to the table; in fact, quite the contrary. Of course, bringing all of this technology together, old and new, means something has to sit in the background to manage it all and make sure it all behaves together correctly.
Chipworks points out in its teardown some things not seen before in an iPhone, such as an AAC Technologies 0DALM1 microphone, EPCOS D5255 antenna switch module, Skyworks SKY77611 power amplifier, Texas Instruments 338S00170 power management IC, and lastly, a Toshiba THGBX5G7D2KLDXG NAND flash storage module.
Chipworks will likely discover more about the iPhone SE as time goes by. iFixit, another firm that does iOS device teardowns, will likely follow up with their own teardown of the iPhone SE and may discover more goodies inside that have yet to be announced.
The iPhone SE launches today, March 31st, and consumers will finally be able to start getting their hands on the handset and getting the performance they demand in a much smaller package than the iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus.
