Apple Watch Uses Chip Manufactured on Samsung's 28-Nanometer Process

[vpndev]

"very unique" is an oxymoron

"... package that is very unique "

It's either unique. As in - there is one and one only. Or it's not.

There is no "very". There is no "try".

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28 nm chip??? Pffff... That explains everything!

I'm not going to throw my money at obsolete tech.

If they'd made it using 14 nm technology is would be half the thickness, and that would be good.

 

[ohbrilliance]

I think it's a reference/joke about the retina screens for the rMBPs.

I reckon so too. It's amusing to see the over-reactions of those who missed the joke.

 

[Keirasplace]

"... package that is very unique "

It's either unique. As in - there is one and one only. Or it's not.

There is no "very". There is no "try".

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If they'd made it using 14 nm technology is would be half the thickness, and that would be good.

Really, Good? Considering the current thickness is the thickness all watches have right now? You really think They'd make it 5mm thick (considering the sensors and connectors are 2mm, that leaves 3mm for the watch and the face... Doubtful).

The reason they used 28mm is this thing has been in development and testing a long time and they've integrated everything in the package. Considering the long lead time for this thing, I wouldn't be surprised if the next iteration would get 20mm and not 14mm, there's more than the CPU/GPU to think about in this thing.

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28 nm chip??? Pffff... That explains everything!

I'm not going to throw my money at obsolete tech.

Perhaps in a few years, if the casing got thinner and prettier, and Apple finely decides to catch up with the latest CPU manufacturing node (14nm and below), I might try this wrist toy. But for now my money is better spent on other things than this dumb watch.

Funny, Apple claims to develop things ahead of their time, and yet they decided to put an obsolete chip in their latest product. Reminds me of their latest crippled Mac Mini.

Funny how you spend so much talking about something you care nothing about; time to reorient your priorities...

Right... Obsolete chip... Despite the fact that no one else has a better chip, in a smaller package. Everyone else is much bigger and are not using less battery, and are much less useful. What have those poor competitors done wrong if they're using more recent tech...

Maybe they should have spent a few minutes integrating the software with the chip instead of busting their budget on hardware... Oh, I forgot (sic), they're dependent on the crumbs Google deign give them

Apple took seemingly a lot of time developing the software for the watch and testing it to make sure it actually works well; unlike the 5 massive brick like, Crap, Gear iterations Samsung foisted on the world. Samsung doesn't seem to care if they screw their early adopters.

Freezing hardware early to make sure you can develop a stable software for it, is the right way to do things.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Really, Good? Considering the current thickness is the thickness all watches have right now? You really think They'd make it 5mm thick (considering the sensors and connectors are 2mm, that leaves 3mm for the watch and the face... Doubtful).

The reason they used 28mm is this thing has been in development and testing a long time and they've integrated everything in the package. Considering the long lead time for this thing, I wouldn't be surprised if the next iteration would get 20mm and not 14mm, there's more than the CPU/GPU to think about in this thing.

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Funny how you spend so much talking about something you care nothing about; time to reorient your priorities...

Right... Obsolete chip... Despite the fact that no one else has a better chip, in a smaller package. Everyone else is much bigger and are not using less battery, and are much less useful. What have those poor competitors done wrong if they're using more recent tech...

Maybe they should have spent a few minutes integrating the software with the chip instead of busting their budget on hardware... Oh, I forgot (sic), they're dependent on the crumbs Google deign give them

Apple took seemingly a lot of time developing the software for the watch and testing it to make sure it actually works well; unlike the 5 massive brick like, Crap, Gear iterations Samsung foisted on the world. Samsung doesn't seem to care if they screw their early adopters.

Freezing hardware early to make sure you can develop a stable software for it, is the right way to do things.

For people that have been, or are in the high tech world, that is the truth. The Watch 2 is either nearing or in firm config for features. Now is the time to start the implementation phase and manufacturability. The Watch 3 is on the drawing board now.

Concurrent design is the norm in high tech.

 

[johnswilson1]

Wrong Perspective

Why waste money on cutting edge when you know the faithful will purchase it blindly?

Silly. Folks have a hard time seeing the big picture, which is that Apple wouldn't commit to the most cutting edge (read: expensive) components prior to being sure the Watch would be in high demand. Hence why generation 1 products tend to be more conservative. Companies have to first prove there is a market.

 

[DynaFXD]

My guess is the design got finalized a while ago.
And I also believe the 28nm process is more in the "tried-and-trusted"-department, so Apple was more comfortable with it.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't a single reason

Indeed. I wonder what folks think gets launched into space. We have all this crazy hot technology. Yet parts that get space time are quite old in comparison. Why? It takes time to get the designs and technology down to a certainty level that you can trust. If you are going to launch a satellite, or maybe a new SKU in your product line up, you want something predictable that you know you can work with. In this case, bleeding edge is more or less a bad thing. When your unit goes ****-up a couple million miles from home, you can't exactly call the Geek Squad to go push the reset button.

 

[Batman89]

Maybe it made the watch snappier?

 

[MasterRyu2011]

Every Apple Watch has a little bit of Samsung in it. Lovely!

Every Apple product has a little bit of Samsung in it.

 

[blackcrayon]

Because they know the faithful will purchase it blindly.
The press will tout it the best watch ever (without ever using it)

And most importantly, Apple will add billions more because people are generally stupid.

Well, they know the fake haters/whiners will complain no matter what they do, so there's that. Any positive reviews are lies too, right?

 

[wikiverse]

So.....

You are holding a bag in your right hand while in public; You receive a text, so you use your free hand to retrieve your phone, read the text, and reply.

.......how do I do that with the watch, without putting the bag down?

Get out of here with your Logic and real-world scenarios.

 

[blackcrayon]

Get out of here with your Logic and real-world scenarios.

Logic and real world tells you to use Siri.

 

[TouchMint.com]

Apple holding back to increase profit margin and ensure they have something for next year. The oldest trick in the apple book!

 

[Edd.Dantes]

Why not Samsung's 20nm process?

28nm is way too old. 14nm could have been used but Samsung may not have had the yield and the S6 took priority?

20nm was the logical choice. I mean it wouldn't equate to great battery gains, due to the screen and other components, but 5-10% extra battery would have been nice.

20nm is plenty mature, for those talking about leakage. Samsung's process anyway... Not TSMC's #

 

[Bot4Hire]

Silly. Folks have a hard time seeing the big picture, which is that Apple wouldn't commit to the most cutting edge (read: expensive) components prior to being sure the Watch would be in high demand. Hence why generation 1 products tend to be more conservative. Companies have to first prove there is a market.

That's a load of ****.

Apple bet the Bank on the iPhone.

Nothing like it had come before even though other Smart Phones exhisted.

Apple's attempt at a studdering slugish, app crashing watch is shameful.

Apple put out a watch the same as all the other failures.

 

[Edd.Dantes]

That's a load of $*it.

Apple bet the Bank on the iPhone.

Nothing like it had come before even though other Smart Phones exhisted.

Apple's attempt at a studdering slugish, app crashing watch is shameful.

Apple put out a watch the same as all the other failures.

Life under Tim Cook.

Steve would have thrown a Mac mini at him for suggesting something so stupid.

The Taptic Engine steals, at least, 100mah from our battery # Is it "really" needed...

And yes, the Apple Watch has essentially the same innards as all Android Wear watches. If it weren't an Apple product, it wouldn't be called "a feat" of engineering. Even though Android OEM's beat them to it by a year. Not entirely sure how many Wear watches have heart rate sensors though?

 

[now i see it]

I very much like the chip division of Samsung, they are good at what they do.

http://gizmodo.com/5524174/controversial-book-claims-samsung-is-basically-the-most-corrupt-company-in-asia

 

[nikaru]

Its a custom apple chip manufactured by Samsung, not a Samsung chip, but nevermind.

Its nice to know that the next gen Apple Watch may come with a 14nm chip inside which translate in a huge margin for improvements, especially in power consumption and available space to stuck even more sensors or improve others. Like Jony Ive said "we are actually just at the begining of making technology truely personal".

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So.....

You are holding a bag in your right hand while in public; You receive a text, so you use your free hand to retrieve your phone, read the text, and reply.

.......how do I do that with the watch, without putting the bag down?

Saying "Hey Siri" would activate Siri...

 

[George Bailey]

512gb

I am definitely upgrading to the iPhone 6S if it also comes with 512GB of ram...

That would be the iPhone Edition, starting at $10,000.

 

[MonkeySee....]

Why? Whats wrong with Samsung chips? They are pretty good as far as I know.

Is it because you don't like their mobile division? Yeah, I also don't like what their mobile division is doing, but that does not mean that all the other divisions are bad - you should see the divisions as separate companies and learn to admire quality where it is deserved (and dislike where they show bad attitude/behavior).

Just blind hate is not good.

Seeing as Samsung are being sued Dyson about their vacuums then I don't see much morals for other parts of Samsungs businesses

 

[jwball]

So.....

You are holding a bag in your right hand while in public; You receive a text, so you use your free hand to retrieve your phone, read the text, and reply.

.......how do I do that with the watch, without putting the bag down?

You look at your wrist and realise the text doesn't need a reply so you've saved the energy that you'd have wasted getting the phone out!

 

[cfedu]

Seeing as Samsung are being sued Dyson about their vacuums then I don't see much morals for other parts of Samsungs businesses

Are you sure about that? Last i heard Dyson dropped their suit against Samsung and are now being sued for defamation.

 

[George Bailey]

Samsung makes their own CPU's for all types of products that are made.

Do they use their own CPUs in any of their phones? (Not being snarky, I don't know).

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28 nm chip??? Pffff... That explains everything!

Perhaps in a few years, if the casing got thinner and prettier, and Apple finely decides to catch up with the latest CPU manufacturing node (14nm and below), I might try this wrist toy. But for now my money is better spent on other things than this dumb watch.

Will the next one be better? Of course, probably by a lot. But in the mean time, if you already have an iPhone, this version will still make your life a little bit easier and just a little bit better, for not all that much money. After resale, less than a buck a day to improve one's life? That's an easy decision.

 

[lowendlinux]

Do they use their own CPUs in any of their phones? (Not being snarky, I don't know).

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Will the next one be better? Of course, probably by a lot. But in the mean time, if you already have an iPhone, this version will still make your life a little bit easier and just a little bit better, for not all that much money. After resale, less than a buck a day to improve one's life? That's an easy decision.

They do use their own processors in their phones but I don't know if they do in the US market.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Why not Samsung's 20nm process?

28nm is way too old. 14nm could have been used but Samsung may not have had the yield and the S6 took priority?

20nm was the logical choice. I mean it wouldn't equate to great battery gains, due to the screen and other components, but 5-10% extra battery would have been nice.

20nm is plenty mature, for those talking about leakage. Samsung's process anyway... Not TSMC's ��

I get what you're saying, and the technology node that is being implemented is moot at this point. I think the amazing thing is the integration of the separate components on the PC board was pretty amazing.

Shrinking the technology may be in the future, as many chip makers build the new tech, then shrink it, because of the stability of the process. (i.e. They don't simultaneously come out with a new chip architecture and die size. They make a new architecture, then, on the next node, they shrink the die size, and add supplemental (i.e. up the on-board RAM) devices.)) technology. Yes, I just realized I put an i.e. inside of an i.e....

 

[bobob]

According to reports, health sensors that did not make it into the first-generation device may be added to the second-generation version, perhaps allowing it to track health-related metrics like stress levels, blood pressure, and oxygen levels.

Gotta get those fake rumors going early, so next year's articles can moan about how disappointing Apple is for not putting in their planned (ie: rumored) sensors.