Last week I found out Apple Watch processor details implemented in the S1 chip specially created by the company Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),, and today we learn some new information about what the engineers from Cupertino have achieved for the smart watch. According to a company that analyzed the components inside the S1 chip, an APL 0778 CPU and an Apple graphics card are inside, the chip being produced by Samsung using a 28nm manufacturing process.
Apple Watch's S1 chip it has dimensions of 26 mm x 28 mm, so Apple has worked hard to reduce the size of such a component in order to be able to implement it in a smartwatch without problems. The interesting part is that Apple managed to cram no less than 30 components into the S1 chip for Apple Watch, all being encapsulated using resin, the ingenuity of the engineers from Cupertino being truly commendable on this point.
Regarding the processing power, it seems that it is similar to that offered by the A5 chips implemented in the iPhone 4S, iPad 2 or iPod Touch 5G, so that the rumors regarding this situation are now confirmed. The interesting part is that Apple uses the old 28nm process for production, although in the case of the iPhone 6 it uses a 20nm process, and Samsung is already able to produce various chips using a 14nm manufacturing process.
Apple and/or their suppliers have designed and manufactured a 26 mm x 28 mm package that is very unique. Let's consider its construction for a moment. We have a common motherboard to which all of the components (wafer scale packages, PoPs, BGAs, etc.) have been attached. The entire motherboard, with all of its components, is then overmolded with a packaging compound containing silica or alumina spheres suspended in a resin. We see this same type of material in conventional IC packaging, but we have never observed this being used over a 26 mm x 28 mm motherboard.
Considering that this chip S1 of the Apple Watch has at based on an outdated manufacturing process, in a future model Apple can seriously improve the autonomy of the battery, but also the dimensions of the components. Having said that, the S1 chip of the Apple Watch is impressive, but probably only in the next generations will we see many innovations from Apple.
