Apple's Lightning Connector Uses Adaptive Technology to Dynamically Assign Pin Functions

[TMay]

In my country, students design their own data transport protocols, write software for FPGAs, controller chips and so on. We have a very high average education level. That's probably the difference, and the reason why you are not able to understand, what i say. You are probably too young (not a student at a university). That's ok. But please do not tell us, Apples work is above the average, regarding a simple active cable. It is not the first active cable in the world, and therefore not revolutionary.

In my country, Apple designed Lightning for multiple billions of future devices over a minimum of a decade of use, with capability to match future standards and protocols, including their own, and extend bandwidth to match future mobile devices. Let's not forget the mechanical design of the connector and socket, which would be required to see mechanical loads through everyday use, and perhaps 10's of thousands of cycles of connection.

I'm guessing that Apple took a bit more time and used a bit more resources for Lightning than you for your project.

Not revolutionary, but bold on Apple's part.

 

[thasan]

Until they change it again in a few years.

sure, how old is the old connector? 9 years if i remember correctly. it has served quite well.
its not only apple, many companies make connectors for no reason, i had an fz5 camera...the usb cable had a different shaped head. true i was annoyed but if i had 2-3 of their gadgets, i wouldnt mind...
only time will tell whether this doc connectors will evolve into a better and faster version without any physical change.

 

[shinji]

The old cable was working just fine. And micro usb works just fine, too.

I wish they had kept the old cable. I don't care about the cable being reversible or a smidgeon of extra thinness. To make everyone buy new cables/accessories and/or adapters (assuming your device still fits in the accessory with it), and to price the adapters as high as they did, and to make the switch to another proprietary connector rather than micro USB, and for Apple to give itself exclusive rights initially is a cash grab- plain and simple.

 

[viacavour]

In my country, Apple designed Lightning for multiple billions of future devices over a minimum of a decade of use, with capability to match future standards and protocols, including their own, and extend bandwidth to match future mobile devices.

Yours will almost certainly never see production, so let's say tens of devices.

I'm guessing that Apple took a bit more time and used a bit more resources for Lightning than you for your project.

Perhaps not revolutionary, but quite bold.

Forward thinking; but still pluggable with existing standards. The only issue is they need to lower the price fast.

The old cable was working just fine. And micro usb works just fine, too.

I wish they had kept the old cable. I don't care about the cable being reversible or a smidgeon of extra thinness. To make everyone buy new cables/accessories and/or adapters (assuming your device still fits in the accessory with it), and to make the switch to another proprietary connector rather than micro USB, and for Apple to give itself exclusive rights initially is a cash grab- plain and simple.

You *can* use all your old cables after you buy one adaptor for your iPhone 5 (and presumably one for every new iDevices). You don't have to buy a new adaptor for every old cable you have. >_<

 

[thasan]

In my country, Apple designed Lightning for multiple billions of future devices over a minimum of a decade of use, with capability to match future standards and protocols, including their own, and extend bandwidth to match future mobile devices.

Yours will almost certainly never see production, so let's say tens of devices.

I'm guessing that Apple took a bit more time and used a bit more resources for Lightning than you for your project.

Perhaps not revolutionary, but quite bold.

thanks for this mate. very well said.

 

[DrMotownMac]

- The device watches for a momentary short on all pins (by the leading edge of the plug) to detect plug insertion/removal.

- The pins on the plug are deactivated until after the plug is fully inserted, when a wake-up signal on one of the pins cues the chip inside the plug. This avoids any shorting hazard while the plug isn’t inside the connector.

- The controller/driver chip tells the device what type it is, and for cases like the Lightning-to-USB cable whether a charger (that sends power) or a device (that needs power) is on the other end.

- The device can then switch the other pins between the SoC’s data lines or the power circuitry, as needed in each case.

- Once everything is properly set up, the controller/driver chip gets digital signals from the SoC and converts them – via serial/parallel, ADC/DAC, differential drivers or whatever – to whatever is needed by the interface on the other end of the adapter or cable. It could even re-encode these signals to some other format to use fewer wires, gain noise-immunity or whatever, and re-decode them on the other end; it’s all flexible. It could even convert to optical.

Okay, after reading that, I feel like Homer Simpson.....

 

[Born Again]

I have this head unit.... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0039YXNVC/

and it works great with it. Just as it did with the 30pin cable

Thanks ill order one

 

[cotak]

Intelligent cable: the computer chip is there so you don't have to flip it! What a great innovation. Can I get AppleCare with it?

Sounds like a typical American solution. Reminds me a story when Americans spent $10 million to develop a pen for astronauts. Russians just used pencil.

So get your credit card ready to pay $30 for each cable instead of $0.99 for USB.

Exactly everyone getting so excited about this "innovation" when it's just going to cost you money. It's also another thing to go wrong in your phone and costs more to fix, fine if you are under apple care not so great otherwise. But I suppose Apple wants it's stuff to become disposable so you'll replace it every years and keep their revenue flowing.

 

[linuxcooldude]

Read a few articles on the subject. While battery technology HAS advanced, it's widely regarded as the slowest advancement in most mobile technology. It is the bottleneck.

While it generally might lag behind most technology it seems to be catching up:

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/03/09/new-ipad-battery-has-70-more-capacity/

 

[mozumder]

Speaking as an electrical engineer, you missed the point entirely. The innovation isn't in the fact that the cable is reversible. The innovation is in the hardware and software that allows the function of the pins to change depending on the requirements of the device that is connected.

Maybe you should have read the article and previous posts before you jumped in trying to impress us with your degree.

I'm glad you recognize my superior intellect and appreciate that you understand why one doesn't need to read any more articles on reversible/multiplexed connectors with software signaling.

At least we all agree that this is not innovation, but a gradual refinement.

 

[klamse25]

I'm shocked that they thought of this, then pulled it off! Why didn't they touch on this at the media event? Much more innovative then some silly features they touted as revolutionary for the new iPhone.

 

[viacavour]

Exactly everyone getting so excited about this "innovation" when it's just going to cost you money. It's also another thing to go wrong in your phone and costs more to fix, fine if you are under apple care not so great otherwise. But I suppose Apple wants it's stuff to become disposable so you'll replace it every years and keep their revenue flowing.

If they want a port to connect to all sorts of different devices, you will need adaptors anyway -- *assuming* the old standards can keep up with new protocols. Once Apple standardizes on one connector format, it should stick around for some time (10 years, if it's like the previous one). This is just during the transition period. You can buy one adaptor and continue to use all your old cables anyhow.

Trying to shoehorn DisplayPort, HDMI, USB 3, and what not on the old MicroUSB connector may cause more confusion when different vendors try to do it their ways. Even Samsung's proprietary MHL over MicroUSB implementation caused incompatibility. Imagine Apple and more vendors trying to overload bigger pool of protocol support over the same thing. It would be a mess.

 

[bobobenobi]

iMac/Amarra > Wyred 4 Sound DAC2 > Woo WA22 (tube amp) > Sennheiser HD 700.

Don't get me started on my USB and XLR interconnect cables.

Let me get this straight. You're asking if a digital cable is going to corrupt digital audio files during computer/phone transfers?

What about your USB cables?

 

[darkslide29]

Let me get this straight. You're asking if a digital cable is going to corrupt digital audio files during computer/phone transfers?

What about your USB cables?

Uh oh.. questioning an audiophile? Get ready for a lecture.

 

[repoman27]

Let me get this straight. You're asking if a digital cable is going to corrupt digital audio files during computer/phone transfers?

What about your USB cables?

I don't think the problem is during transfers, I think it's when you output audio through a device that uses the USB audio device profile.

USB 2.0 had crap support for isochronous data transfers which caused problems for some, and the problem gets even worse when you hang a USB audio device off of a USB host controller that is connected to the PCIe root complex via Thunderbolt.

 

[SouthsideJohnny]

Well, this certainly is not Occam's Connector. But the simplest design would certainly be the best design. Hell, no... Let's go with the most expensive and complicated solution.

 

[deanbo]

Lightning?

Well, this certainly is not Occam's Connector. But the simplest design would certainly be the best design. Hell, no... Let's go with the most expensive and complicated solution.

Could they have come up with a less unimaginative name?

 

[viacavour]

Well, this certainly is not Occam's Connector. But the simplest design would certainly be the best design. Hell, no... Let's go with the most expensive and complicated solution.

It depends on your perspective. In a multi-connected, multi-vendor, multi-standards with proprietary extensions world, the simplest/naive/limited scoped implementation will get lost inside this tangled web of connectivity.

However, the simplest solution may be to create a clean, simple and superior implementation to avoid the connected and extended mess, and plug into them selectively.

 

[chrisbru]

Could they have come up with a less unimaginative name?

So you think the name is very imaginative?

 

[viacavour]

So you think the name is very imaginative?

Probably goes with Thunderbolt and iCloud.

Android, Galaxy, Nexus, HTC, Xperia, Lumia, Metro, Windows 8 don't really sound imaginative to me. In fact, they all sound clunky and overly techie.

 

[jazz1]

Wow. I really hope this goes somewhere regarding new functions for new devices. I'm kind of glad I held of on an iPad3. I'm assuming the next iPad is going to incorporate this. The mini iPad (should it happen) too.

 

[louis Fashion]

Let me get this straight. You're asking if a digital cable is going to corrupt digital audio files during computer/phone transfers?

What about your USB cables?

My USB cables are constructed from dark matter and packed in Russian Fish Oil. When I take them off my DAC and use them on my printer, I get blacker blacks and very blue blues. I am still unhappy with the reds. But there is hope, I have a vendor who has USB cables fashioned from unobtainium and he claims the reds are, well....very red, all for only $12,000 a foot. I call that a bargain.

 

[PracticalMac]

Physical design is spectacular.

This chip controlled adaptive connection, OTOH,.... why?? (secret surprise??)


Any why not just a very simple charging circuit?

 

[joueboy]

So can I just order that ordinary cable I can use for charging for $9.99, that's all I need I don't that smart cable for now.

 

[viacavour]

Physical design is spectacular.

This chip controlled adaptive connection, OTOH,.... why?? (secret surprise??)


Any why not just a very simple charging circuit?

Because it goes beyond charging !

And yes, I do think there may be other hidden surprises down the road.