Prototype Development Board of Original iPhone Surfaces in Never-Before-Seen Photos

[projectle]

Apple is incredibly secretive, even to their own employees. Information is compartmentalized to incredible degrees that it is amazing that any of this works.

It is important to note that on this development board, not a single essential component on the logic board is modular. Typically one would have something like this as an expansion board where the SoC - with interface board - would slot into so development of both software and hardware can move independently. This has none of that. It is targeted solely to the Software development when the hardware is effectively already locked in. If any changes need to happen to the hardware, it's time to toss it in the bin and make a new one.

It is all secrecy and obfuscation. In much the same way why people now develop on a best in class emulator when it comes to iOS where you don't need to know anything about the hardware as it is abstracted away.

 

[Robert.Walter]

That copyright though. Gives it away as Apple if board is lost.

 

[Marcus PM]

The beginning of "Bendgate."

 

[trusso]

Apart from discrete components that would later be merged into custom chips I suspect that a lot of the size of that board is simply to spread things out so that test gear can be attached (hence the gazillion sockets) and enable circuit 'patches' to be made by hand. Its not like they were waiting for some magic new technology to come along to enable them to shrink this to iPhone size - its just that miniaturization and custom chips are prohibitively expensive in small quantities.

This.

Perhaps everyone is just playing dumb, but I get the feeling many readers don't understand the meaning of "prototype board." Something that size was never considered for a shipping product, it merely allows the engineers to fiddle with things before the designs are finalized and mass-produced.

 

[W.O.P.R.]

Imagine the original iPad...

We don't have to. They showed that in Wall-E.

 

[seek3r]

Fascinating to see how much technology has progressed today, compared to where it was all those years ago when you look at that circuitboard with the components displayed.

This is pretty normal today too, it's a prototyping board, breaking everything out on a big board makes things easier. Not my end of things, but my dad has a pile of prototype boards for hardware he's worked on lying around my parent's house

 

[locovaca]

What exactly is a security shield?
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More like 2005 technology since that is when they did the majority of the development.

The hardware was not that revolutionary. Windows Pocket PC had mobile radio variants already and Palm had introduced a wireless variant in 2001 or 2002. It was the software experience that changed things

 

[bobnugget]

2 + 2 = 5
Apart from discrete components that would later be merged into custom chips I suspect that a lot of the size of that board is simply to spread things out so that test gear can be attached (hence the gazillion sockets) and enable circuit 'patches' to be made by hand. Its not like they were waiting for some magic new technology to come along to enable them to shrink this to iPhone size - its just that miniaturisation and custom chips are prohibitively expensive in small quantities.

Yep thats it, it's so you can connect things and debug hardware different points. I think the iPhone board itself is connected at the top right. The space for the battery is at the top left. Not sure what the board just below that is.

I have one of these for an S1 Apple Watch, you put the SOC in a cage in the middle and the entire board has breakouts for all the different components to be attached, screen, digital crown, battery, LTE, FTDI debug, antenna, lightning, headphone, mic, all sorts. It also has loads of jumpers and debug points also.

 

[az431]

Why does it have an iPhone 4 attached to it?

It doesn’t.

 

[Millah]

Imagine the original iPad...

You’re essentially looking at it. Tablet development began before the iPhone. Apples engineers were tasked with taking that project, and shrinking it into a handheld sized enclosure and display. 10+ years later, the whole endeavor is still fascinating to me. And it still blows my mind that we have these sophisticated multi touch computers that fit inside our pocket. All thanks to that crazy Purple project inside of Apple 14 years ago

 

[THE ONE!!]

I was just looking at my original iPhone over the weekend and thought to myself "It's actually pretty amazing what they were able to do with this thing using 2007 technology."

Not really, everything on it was already out there. Multi touch was cool, but most was.just presented in a nice party dress...

 

[acorntoy]

Imagine the original iPad...

I I remember correctly Macrumors reported they were inviting potential developers into a room with the device under a big plastic case cover so only the screen was visible.

 

[Defthand]

This.

Perhaps everyone is just playing dumb, but I get the feeling many readers don't understand the meaning of "prototype board".

If only they were playing. This is the caliber of enthusiasts Apple serves these days.

 

[eoblaed]

I have to admit ... this is pretty cool.

 

[mikethemartian]

It would be cool if Apple sold evaluation kits like this based on older designs to hardware engineering students. I assume they are available for Android chipsets.

 

[Crowbot]

2 + 2 = 5

Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but the display and touch screen is always going to be the hardest/most expensive thing to prototype, and people developing the 'background' system software wouldn't be worrying about the UI. If they'd waited for anything close to the finished hardware to be ready before starting software development they'd never have got a product out the door.

Apart from discrete components that would later be merged into custom chips I suspect that a lot of the size of that board is simply to spread things out so that test gear can be attached (hence the gazillion sockets) and enable circuit 'patches' to be made by hand. Its not like they were waiting for some magic new technology to come along to enable them to shrink this to iPhone size - its just that miniaturisation and custom chips are prohibitively expensive in small quantities.

I'm sure you're right. I'll bet they even used it for the iPad.

 

[theluggage]

Not really, everything on it was already out there. Multi touch was cool, but most was.just presented in a nice party dress...

Well, it was pretty slim but, yeah, in terms of miniaturisation it was more "evolutionary" than "revolutionary" - but most contemporary high-end smartphones (e.g. Windows Mobile and Blackberry) tried to shoehorn in a physical - usually QWERTY - keyboard. The "courageous" decision was to go all-touchscreen - and the level of attention to detail put into making that work (the LG Prada might have got there first on the hardware, but it was the multi-touch and UI design that made the iPhone stand out).

 

[Tech198]

Hmmm not sure it would fit in your pocket.

...Perhaps a jeans pocket

Also, looks like it had a riser card.

 

[alent1234]

I was just looking at my original iPhone over the weekend and thought to myself "It's actually pretty amazing what they were able to do with this thing using 2007 technology."

They had PDA's in the late 1990's and early 2000's. biggest thing missing was cellular and wifi, although I think the iPaq and Dell Axim had cellular options

 

[THE ONE!!]

Well, it was pretty slim but, yeah, in terms of miniaturisation it was more "evolutionary" than "revolutionary" - but most contemporary high-end smartphones (e.g. Windows Mobile and Blackberry) tried to shoehorn in a physical - usually QWERTY - keyboard. The "courageous" decision was to go all-touchscreen - and the level of attention to detail put into making that work (the LG Prada might have got there first on the hardware, but it was the multi-touch and UI design that made the iPhone stand out).

Don't know about UI standing out, a row of icons was just about what everyone used back then. Shame they haven't moved on...

 

[zeram1]

Still better than even the last iteration of the Windows phone!

 

[cocoua]

Pre-ordered!

XD
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Imagine the original iPad...

I just think in an iPhone inside a huge empty box

 

[pmore]

Such exciting times. Very interesting article.

 

[raghu8912]

So even the true OG didn't have a headphone jack.

"Engineers could also test headphone connectivity"