- Apple’s Battery Charger: 8-bits anyone?
- Capstone, 370 kW and “a revolutionary microturbine design”
- Apple’s A4, Thinking Different and Going Forward
- Apple, the “latest creation” and PA Semi
- Willard Boyle, the Nobel prize and patentable subject matter
- Capstone, the auto-turbine and the case for liquid fuels
- Apple : the not “too sexy” technology developments
- thermoelectrics: was that Intel as the assignee?
- Bio-mass : will that be filtering, pyrolysis or gasification?
- concentrating photovoltaics: coming of age?
- to wet or not to wet – GE’s metal wettability work
- Turbines – A Different Spin on Solar Energy
- Numonyx – Was that PCM or PCRAM?
- CREE acquires LLF, a glimpse at the technology
- Thermoelectric Materials – Road to the Solid State Fridge
- Foamed Metal – Tomorrow’s Bumper?
materials matters
August 2010 | Apple’s Battery Charger: 8-bits anyone?
An AA battery charger was probably the most unexpected piece of hardware to emerge on July 27th. In fact the marketed system includes six batteries along with the charger. On one hand it seems unusual that Apple is producing a battery charger when their expertise lies in, well, computer based systems. On another hand Apple may have seen an opportunity with more of their input devices requiring batteries for operation. Charge retention, longevity and reduced vampire draw are all presented as advantages of the Apple system.
The publicity shots present an attractive device with very familiar curves and materials, implementing elements of current Apple industrial design. Of course it appears quite orderly with no excess material.
Certainly though, as with all Apple products, there must be more than just a nice design. Phrases such as “smarter way” and “intelligent power management system” on the charger’s page on the Apple site stress it’s ability to think. A claimed life of up to 10 years also alludes to this ability. This lifespan reminds one of Apple’s most recent laptop batteries that are claimed to have a lifetime of up to 1000 cycles. While the term “adaptive charging” is not used in the description of the charger the longevity claims certainly point to some optimized charging algorithm and thus a thinking system.
So, what type of logic is inside the Apple charger?
Located on the charger’s circuit board is a 16 pin QFN package with the markings:
16F616
-I/ML
0211GR
While the package has not been opened, the “16F616” marking and package type match Microchip’s PIC16F616 8-Bit micro-controller with embedded Flash.
So why is Apple putting this effort into a charger? For sure the charger will only represent a tiny revenue stream. Is it as straight forward as a more efficient system? Is there an IP angle to all this? Apple appears to be porting R&D from one line of business to another. In this case an entirely new one. Time will tell what comes of this move and whether tangible technology and/or IP inroads are made into the mobile power market.