C1: Apple has big plans for its radio modem

From the point of view of the experts, it is the greatest news of the iPhone 16E: The C1 modem chip, which Apple presented together with the new smartphone on Wednesday, is still secret several days after its first mention. Apple himself gave the chip, which could significantly reduce Apple's purchase of Qualcomm chips in the future, little space in the presentation. In the meantime, the hardware manager Johny Sroouji and Apple have revealed a few more details about the chip and the plans beyond that.

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Even if Apple with the advertised energy -saving effects and the supposedly longer battery life of the iPhone 16E shows a first concrete benefit of the in -house development, according to Srouji, your own radio chip is still at the very beginning: “We will further improve this technology with every generation, so that you will further improve it into a platform For us, which is used to really differentiate this technology for our products “, he explained to the US news agency Reuters.

What Apple sees its advantage

Where exactly Apple wants to differentiate itself remains unclear. At least so much showed Apple: The processor should be able to communicate directly with the radio modem for network overloads in order to prioritize data that is considered particularly time -critical. This should be done in such a close coordination as they do not master other systems.

Srouji, according to her own statement, sees an advantage in the fact that Apple can make its radio chips tailor-made for his own needs and, like other radio modem manufacturers, do not have to create products that are directed by a wide range of potential customers: “We are not the trading manufacturer who is with Qualcomm And want to compete MediaTek and others.

Laboring test program

Part of the Apple's public offensive for the C1 is apparently also inviting media representatives. So the YouTuber Andru Edwards visited a measurement laboratory from Apple in Californiawhere Apple wanted to show what technical effort the company is doing. This should ensure that the C1 does not fall behind the Qualcomm modem chips previously used in iPhones. Tests with 180 mobile phone providers in 55 countries were necessary. According to Apple, Apple according to its own statements reproduces various scenarios and environments.

In total, almost 20 years of development are said to have been necessary to develop your own radio modem. According to the information, the base band modem is said to have been built with a 4-nanometer structure width, the transceiver with 7-nanometer technology. The C1 dominates GPS and can also interact with satellites. At least at the beginning, however, the ability to use the MMWAVE technology in mobile phone networks will be missing, which is also very sparse.