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Determine which A9 chip (TSMC or Samsung) without downloading software in iPhone 6S (Plus)

VinegarTasters

VinegarTasters

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 20, 2007
278
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How to tell if you have the Samsung or TSMC CPU chip (A9) without jailbreaking or downloading any software on your Apple iPhone 6S or iPhone 6S Plus! Inside the Settings app on the iPhone, you can search for the hidden data that determines which exact A9 CPU chip you have in your phone. Just follow the instructions in the video and look for the token string.

Note: The following method below works for iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus...





Note: The following method below works for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (or below)...

 
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Love the idea, but mine says "No Diagnostic Data" tried the restart twice. :-/ I hope this works for others!
 
webwbr said:
Love the idea, but mine says "No Diagnostic Data" tried the restart twice. :-/ I hope this works for others!
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Just keep using the phone as normal and at least something will pop up. Usually when you connect to iTunes, it will clear that page.
 
Geekbench 3 was updated yesterday and it now tells you "motherboard" after running a benchmark. Another option.
 
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Or don't click on the video and just read it in my signature. :cool:
 
Yeah not sure this is correct. Lirum shows that I have the TSMC Chip but doing this says I have the Samsung chip. Somethings not right!
 
This is simply a matter of labeling. For those of you who used a third party program to determine your chip set, and your diagnostics shos the S8000 then you have a samsung chip, according to the wiki, and every other available source, that's samsung. If your other programs say otherwise, they are likely mistaken. Unless every phone says S8000 in the diagnostics... which would mean horrible things for apple, as that may be some sort of way to prevent people from knowing the chip. however, i highly doubt that!
 
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yillbs said:
This is simply a matter of labeling. For those of you who used a third party program to determine your chip set, and your diagnostics shos the S8000 then you have a samsung chip, according to the wiki, and every other available source, that's samsung. If your other programs say otherwise, they are likely mistaken. Unless every phone says S8000 in the diagnostics... which would mean horrible things for apple, as that may be some sort of way to prevent people from knowing the chip. however, i highly doubt that!
Click to expand...
Everyone using this method is getting 8000 . So it's not reliable.
 
LLL1424 said:
Everyone using this method is getting 8000 . So it's not reliable.
Click to expand...

Then their is a bigger problem than just having multiple chips. The model number of the device / chipset can not be wrong in diagnostics... that would defeat the entire purpose of having diagnostics. When we plug it in ( usually after it's been sent back due to a replacement ) the information is downloaded. Often times we dont even SEE the phone, and we use the information provided in the diagnostics to tell us what phone it is. Seeing this would tell me it's an iphone running 9.0.1 on a samsung chip. you have to look at this as everything else can be wrong, error reports can not be wrong, the kernel handles that data....

Edit : When actually doing a diagnostic, the CPU identifier is not really every important, it's just a piece of static content provided. ( for resolution ) purposes.
 
LLL1424 said:
Same here. Other apps show a TSMC chip but this method says 8000. Fail !
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Or maybe these previous checks where inconsistent/wrong in the first place. Imagine the look on someone face that went through the trouble of swapping out a Samsung cpu when they actually had a TSMC cpu. The waste of time and resources over the last few days.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!
 
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LLL1424 said:
Everyone using this method is getting 8000 . So it's not reliable.
Click to expand...

Yeah Ive tried 3 methods now. This one says Samsung, the other 2 say TSMC. Not that I think it will make any difference!
 
MrJM said:
Yeah not sure this is correct. Lirum shows that I have the TSMC Chip but doing this says I have the Samsung chip. Somethings not right!
Click to expand...
Same here. 2 methods (app and another chinese thing a week ago). This method shows samsung & the 2 others TSMC.

Believing the other ones.
 
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i agree that it's not that big of a deal, but someone needs to find out why error reporting is sending everyone to samsung labeled devices.. that makes no sense.

EDIT : Apple may have done this intentionally in order to group each phone category into what model it is, as like i said, sometimes the phone isn't handy, and the S8000 would signify an Iphone 6s / 6s+ that may be the only reason they use it. Theory, which based on the feedback, is likely correct.
 
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yillbs said:
i agree that it's not that big of a deal, but someone needs to find out why error reporting is sending everyone to samsung labeled devices.. that makes no sense.
Click to expand...

I'm not knowledgeable with how the error reporting logs works but something tells me the information isn't correct to determine which A9 chip is on your phone using logs. I had to look under a different log to find the "8000" number.


I have used 3 methods to figure out which chip I have in mines and all point at the TSMC chip.
 
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Yes, I know, another thread on the A9 chip ordeal. But apparently using Diagnostics and Usage logs are showing numbers ending in 8000 . Those are apparently Samsung A9 chips. Is this method incorrect?


I've tested 3 apps to check which chip is on mines and they all say TSMC chips. This method shows Samsung. I know it doesn't make a difference but are these apps providing us incorrect information or are the logs the best way to go?
 
LLL1424 said:
I'm not knowledgeable with how the error reporting logs works but something tells me the information isn't correct to determine which A9 chip is on your phone using logs. I had to look under a different log to find the "8000" number.


I have used 3 methods to figure out which chip I have in mines and all point at the TSMC chip.
Click to expand...

I'm leaning more towards this method listed here is just a static identifier, and ALL phones will have this code, 6s, and 6splus, but non (s) phones will not. This method SHOULD be accurate, but it doesn't seem information being reported is accurate, which is actually kinda of scary. This means one of two things, apple doesnt need, nor care what chip the phones have ( which ... means they DONT think their is a difference ), or, they know it's an issue, and were hoping these third party apps would take the kernel chip identifier and lie to everyone :) either way, doens't seem to have worked.
 
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