The unveiling of the iPhone 16e did not have a whole lot of details showcased for Apple’s C1, the company’s first in-house 5G modem that the company claims is the most power-efficient baseband chip to have ever found its place in an iPhone. Unfortunately, the presentation lacked any technical details, meaning that we would have to wait a while to learn more about it. Luckily, we have stumbled upon some interesting information, which states that the C1 is mass produced using a combination of TSMC 4nm and 7nm technologies.
The baseband chip itself leverages TSMC’s 4nm process, while the C1’s transceiver has been fabricated on the 7nm lithography
Unlike Apple’s A18, which powers the iPhone 16e and has been made using TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, also known as 3nm ‘N3E,’ Reuters reports that during an interview with the technology giant’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies, Johny Srouji, he mentioned that the C1 is mass produced using TSMC’s 4nm process. As for the transceiver, it is made using the 7nm technology. For those wondering why Apple did not utilize the more advanced 3nm N3E node like it has for its other silicon, it likely has to do with cost conservation.
After all, the C1 was not just made to give Apple better control over the hardware and software but also to lower the total components cost and help reduce the iPhone 16e’s price, which starts from $599. Assuming the California-based giant had little choice but to use the 3nm process for the C1 or rely on Qualcomm, the starting figure for the device may have been higher. However, despite claiming that the in-house 5G modem delivers superior efficiency that allows the iPhone 16e to flaunt better battery life than the base iPhone 16 or any other 6.1-inch iPhone, Apple made one compromise.
If you did not notice, the C1 lacks mmWave support, a feature present in the Snapdragon X71 5G modem found in Apple’s iPhone 16 range, and allows for blazing-fast downlink and uplink speeds. Also, the company was not keen on sharing the performance metrics of its in-house baseband modem, so we will have a better overview of the company’s efforts once those numbers start to pour through.
News Source: Reuters
