Teardown Suggests Apple Watch Series 5 Components are Close to Identical to Series 4

[Jimmy Bubbles]

It requires a new sensor, and one that is hard to put in a watch due to magnetic sensitivity.
This will unlock new app categories, so when they start coming out requiring S5 or greater you’ll know why.

I think after doing further research, the compass required a new chip on the logic board to communicate the compass direction. Which begs the question: does the compass function even if the network is down?

 

[deeddawg]

I think after doing further research, the compass required a new chip on the logic board to communicate the compass direction. Which begs the question: does the compass function even if the network is down?

It’s a magnetic compass.

What network dependency do you think would exist?

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

It’s a magnetic compass.

What network dependency do you think would exist?

It’s a chip on the board of the watch. It would require some sort of computational processing, no?

 

[deeddawg]

It’s a chip on the board of the watch. It would require some sort of computational processing, no?

Minimal. Well working onboard capabilities.

MEMS magnetic field sensor - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[mtneer]

How about a baseball cap with a wire running down your sleeve?

I'd like the watch to use body heat as a power source - kind of a tiny "geothermal plant" analog on our wrists.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

Minimal. Well working onboard capabilities.

MEMS magnetic field sensor - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Good deal. I'm glad you're quoting a source that wasn't even allowed as a credible source when I was in university.

 

[deeddawg]

Good deal. I'm glad you're quoting a source that wasn't even allowed as a credible source when I was in university.

Oh good grief. this is a discussion forum -- not research paper.

If you're not satisfied with the contents of the wikipedia reference, follow through to any of the 16 citations contained within or do your own research into microelectromechanical systems and how they work. The wikipedia link was intended for you to take as a summary / starting point for your own further research.

Or simply look around the world around you.

Digital compasses with zero external connectivity have existed in things like automotive rear-view mirrors for a couple decades.

Digikey sells a variety of different compass modules with no dependency on external compute. Here's a 2014 unit substantially smaller than a quarter -- which could certainly by now be included in a SOC. https://aerospace.honeywell.com/en/...et/3-axiscompasswithalgorithimshmc6343_ds.pdf