Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Recently, many media reported that some of the iPhone 14 Pro used memory chips (flash memory) stored in the Yangtze River, while the reference was the video of Weifeng Technology's early disassembly and evaluation.

"the biggest change is this hard drive, which is the same size as the Changjiang hard drive used on the SE3," Weifeng Technology Bogo said in the latest iPhone 14 Pro video. At first, we thought it was also stored by Changjiang, but it was actually Toshiba. "

"remove this motherboard sticker, and here is the hard drive," Weifeng Technology Bogg said in a video about iPhone 14 Pro Max. "you can't see from the marked numbers that the small hard drive above the SE3 is stored by the Yangtze River. when we dismantled the 14 Pro, we were too excited to think that as long as it was a small hard drive, it was Yangtze River storage. I hope so, but actually." The video was then queried by software to show that the hard drive manufacturer was Toshiba rather than Changjiang Storage.

From this point of view, it may be an own event for iPhone 14 series phones to use memory chips stored in Changjiang, so how did such an own event happen?

Chip identification: appearance

If you want to identify a chip, the first thing to do is to look at its appearance. The appearance is mainly divided into two aspects, packaging and screen printing.

The packaging of the chip simply refers to the outermost shell of the chip product, and the identification of the chip from the packaging point of view is to see the size and specific shape of the shell.

Take LGA 3647 Intel Xeon CPU and LGA 2011 Intel Xeon CPU as an example, the two series of CPU obviously use different packages. The package used by the LGA 3647 is significantly larger and closer to a rectangle. The LGA 2011 package is smaller and closer to a square.

But only based on the package identification chip can only guess, there are too many chips with the same package. Take the LGA 2011 Intel Xeon CPU as an example, the E5-2660 uses this package and the i7-4960X uses this package.

When it comes to the fields of MOSFET, MCU and memory chips, the phenomenon of using one package for multiple chips is more common.

For example, Toshiba launched five new MOSFET gate driver chips in June this year. Although the specific performance parameters of these five new MOSFET gate driver chips are different, they all use the "WCSP6G" package.

The reason why chip manufacturers sell multiple chips in the same package is mainly for design reuse. For CPU, often a motherboard can support multiple models of CPU. For other chips that do not use slots and need to be welded, multiple chips can share a set of peripheral circuits or PCB designs.

The screen printing of a chip refers to the code printed or engraved on the surface of the chip, which generally contains the chip manufacturer's trademark, product model, performance parameters and other information.

Take the Intel Xeon series CPU as an example, there are copyright marks, processor models, CPU speed, serial numbers and other information on the "screen printing" of the Intel Xeon series CPU. In addition, because many Intel chips are sold directly to consumers, the specific reference information of these screen prints is also given on Intel's official website.

The screen printing information of enterprises like Intel will be written more clearly and in detail, but some chips designed for internal use in other enterprises are not so detailed because the information of the corresponding chips does not need to be provided to non-professionals. For professionals, if you want to get the details of the chip, you only need to consult the chip specification provided by the manufacturer.

Take the memory chip used by the iPhone 14 Pro as an example, which is a line of alphanumeric combination, plus a QR code used for internal identification, without even the manufacturer's mark. In other words, it is difficult to tell which manufacturer the chip came from without the internal documentation of the relevant manufacturer.

In addition, for the memory chip industry, it is normal for different chip manufacturers to launch chip products with the same package for product compatibility.

And this Oolong incident is because the screen printing on the chip can not be queried, only by the packaging style to judge that the chip is stored in the Yangtze River. After all, it is common for multiple chips to use the same package, so this judgment is easy to turn over.

Chip identification: software

A lot of software can detect the information of the equipment hardware and the chip used. Without intentional modification, the result of software identification is quite accurate.

For PC, we can use AIDA64, HWiNFO, CPU-Z, Master Lu and other third-party software to easily view the configuration information of the computer.

In addition to third-party software, device manufacturers also provide software to test and upgrade their own brand of hardware.

Take the hard disk in the computer as an example, such as Intel, Samsung, Toshiba, Western Digital have launched the corresponding management and testing software for their own hard disk products.

For example, Intel Memory and Storage Tool (Intel MAS) can detect the information of Intel hard drives installed on computers.

For mobile phones, there are similar software that can achieve this kind of function, such as Aixian Assistant. Take this iPhone SE3 as an example, through the query on the aides, the supplier of the hard drive of this mobile phone is Hynix (Hynix).

Therefore, the software authentication chip is actually the most simple and accurate identification method (without artificial modification). However, the authentication method of this software requires that the phone is turned on and activated before it can be used. Apple also strictly requires that it should not be activated in advance, so this identification method is not feasible for people who want to get the phone in advance and want to do the test.

Conclusion

1. Apple is not allowed to activate the phone in advance, otherwise it will lead to corresponding punishment. But if you don't turn it on or activate it, it just seems feasible to take it apart. (not from a legal point of view, only from a technical point of view) some earlier disassembly evaluation videos are actually done the same way.

2. In the case of disassembly and viewing, it can only be identified by the appearance of the chip (that is, packaging and screen printing). Because Apple does not release documents related to screen printing, some chips cannot be identified by screen printing.

3. For the chip industry, looks like is not necessarily related by blood. It is easy to turn over the chip just by whether the package looks like or not.

4. Software authentication is one of the important means to identify the chip, and the identification result is very accurate without intentional modification.

5. Under the condition that the chip screen printing can be checked, the chip type can also be accurately identified by the chip screen printing. (except where the chip screen printing is modified)

6. The modification of chip screen printing is mainly realized by polishing the original chip screen printing and printing new screen printing, or directly replacing the chip package.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.