Disassembled iPhone 4 reveals who’s behind the chips

iFixit, a 'teardown' firm hired by clients to provide data and competitive intelligence, stripped down an iPhone4 and revealed a number of design elements. Samsung supplied flash memory, according to the subsequent teardown, while the Micron chip was likely memory. STMicroelectronics provided accelerometer and gyroscope chips used for orienting the phone, iFixit told Reuters. Other suppliers included Cirrus Logic and cellphone chip specialist Skyworks Solutions. Numonyx supplied chips to earlier versions, but was bought by Micron for $1.27 billion this year. The disassembly revealed an A4 processor, manufactured by Samsung, while, replacing the Samsung S5PC100 ARM A8 600MHz cpu used in the 3GS, the new iPhone uses the 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 core, much like the iPad. To the left of the A4 package, the AGD1 is the new 3 axis gyroscope that iFixit believes is designed and manufactured by ST for Apple. According to iFixit, the package marks on this device do not appear to be the currently available commercial part, L3G4200D. The commercial version of this gyroscope is yet to be released. Other devices include Samsung's K9PFG08 Flash memory, Cirrus Logic's 338S0589 audio codec (the same part as in the iPad), Texas Instruments' 343S0499 touch screen controller and Numonyx' 36MY1EE NOR and mobile ddr. iFixit's Kyle Wiens remarked on how no space within the iPhone had been wasted. "This is so compact," he said. "In terms of internal design, they scrapped this completely and started over." Traditionally, Apple doesn't disclose who makes the components that go into its smartphones and makes its gadgets difficult to take apart, but iFixit experts commented on their website on Wednesday that the iPhone 4 presented little difficulty. JP Morgan estimates that 10million iPhones will ship every quarter as the iPhone 4 takes hold, from around 8million in the current quarter.