Amazon Semiconductor drive

Similar to Apple's vertical integration of semiconductor designs Amazon, Facebook, and Google design their own chips ( "Apple's iPhone, iPad Secret Sauce - Semiconductors"-http://goo.gl/0uUeJ8 ) .



More about Amazon semiconductor investment " Amazon to Sell IC for Reaching the Cloud "

Ron

Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.

Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Amazon's cloud boss told us something that should terrify a $140 billion industry

• Rob Price
 
•  

• Mar. 12, 2016, 9:00 AM
 

IIf you build enterprise hardware, start freaking out.

is turning the screws on the $140 billion data-center-tech industry.

Amazon has grown to become the largest player in the rapidly growing cloud industry as its cloud platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), celebrates its 10-year anniversary. 

And in the process, AWS has sent shockwaves through the traditional enterprise sector.

In an interview with Business Insider, Werner Vogels — the CTO of Amazon in charge of AWS — explained why hardware companies aren't going to get any respite any time soon.

Hardware builders are getting squeezed out the game

Right now, instead of buying all of their own computers, networks, and software, businesses large and small are opting to rent it all from cloud-computing vendors. That spells bad news for companies like IBM, HP, Dell, EMC, Cisco, the hardware makers selling companies the servers, storage, and management software.

Normally, these IT companies would simply shift their sales efforts toward the newer, growing market, trying to sell their wares to the cloud-service providers. These providers are building new data centers and installing new hardware at a rapid pace.

The problem is the cloud providers are building their own instead of buying it all from IT vendors. And they are coming up with new designs for faster, cheaper, more efficient hardware, too. Facebook is a prime example of this with its Open Compute Project, in which engineers openly share their homegrown hardware designs with anyone who wants them, and it has become an industry phenom.

Likewise, Amazon also designs and builds its own server and network infrastructure to power its AWS cloud.

"To be able to operate at scale like we do," Werner Vogels explains, "it makes sense to start designing your own server infrastructure as well as your network. There is great advantages in [doing so]."

There are two key advantages for Amazon: flexibility and cost.

"To be able to create network layouts that are unique for our particular business" is extremely useful, Vogels says.

"Remember, this whole business is about shifting capex to opex, but Amazon still as to put up the capex, and this is a capex-intensive business for us. So anything we can do to increase the cost efficiency of our operations immediately benefits our customers," he explains.

To decode that a little, he's saying that by using AWS, businesses turn their IT into a monthly operating expense. But Amazon still has to cough up huge chunks of capital-expense cash in advance to outfit its data center, so it's motivated to find ways to do that as cheaply as possible.

He adds: "Our standards are so high we can't just go with off-the-shelf buildings or networks or power — we really need to make sure we have the highest possible standards."

And that's why as IT shifts to Amazon's cloud, traditional IT players' slices of the pie are shrinking.

This trend is only going to accelerate

Amazon's message is particularly worrying for those traditional IT vendors because it doesn't just apply to itself. By Vogels' logic, anyone above a certain size will eventually find it better to start building their own hardware.

That's already playing out with Facebook's OCP project. Although Amazon hasn't publicly said it is working with the OCP, just about every large cloud company has signed up, including Apple, Microsoft and, more recently, Google. And so have some very large enterprises like Goldman Sachs. 

While vendors like Dell and HP are involved in OCP, they aren't in the driver's seat. For the first time, that seat is filled with the companies who are using the equipment, not the vendors selling it.

Vogels believes the move to the cloud will get even more intense (and most market researchersagree with him). 

It has already reshaped how startups are launched.

"The startup world is radically different today than it was 10 years ago. A typical investment 10 years ago, to be able to get a business off the ground that needs to scale in one way or another, was around $5 million. Today, for $50,000-$100,000, you can get yourself a pretty good businesses started ... the rise of the whole startup culture is largely driven by cloud."

The same thing is happening now to established companies, even those who previously ran their own private data centers.

"Moving over to the cloud allows them [companies] to have their engineers focus on things that matter for the business," he tells us.

'This isn't a winner-takes all market'

Vogels doesn't think much of some of his competitors, claiming they are all years behind.

Although he wouldn't name names, most people see the cloud as a race between market leader Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, with other players like IBM also in the mix.

"If you look at other cloud providers in the market, there's quite a few of them still sort of in the phase where AWS was five, six years ago — in 2010 — at the moment we were still much more focused on the infrastructure side of things than the sort of rich collection of services."

But he acknowledges that there's room for more cloud providers besides AWS, although he, once again, won't name names.

"This is not a winner-takes all market," Vogel says. "I think given the changes we've seen in the last 10 years it's hard to predict which are the players that will be left in 10 years from now, or who will be the main players in the market. I definitely think AWS will be there and have a prominent role in that world."

If Vogels' predictions are right, it doesn't matter from the perspective of the traditional enterprise sector who comes out on top: Whoever it is, they'll end up building their own tech.

"Do I think there will be less and less data centers over time?" Vogels says. "Yes, absolutely."

Semiconductor Startup Acquisition in 2016

Not only large semiconductor companies merge ( Update: China 2015/2016 Semiconductor Mergers, Acquisitions), startups are also acquired. Cisco acquisition of  Leaba semiconductor (see below) would help Cisco to lock up the network through their own chips. 

This purchase is similar to Apple snapping up semiconductor companies several years ago to strengthen future growth while See September 2013 blog - How Apple Leverages its R&D

Ron

Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.

Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Cisco to acquire Leaba Semiconductor for $320 million as buying spree continues

By Ron Miller on March 2, 2016

Cisco continued its buying spree today as it announced its intention to acquire Israeli chip designer Leaba Semiconductor for $320 million.Cisco sees this acquisition as a way to bolster its hardware catalog with highly advanced chip technology.

“By combining Leaba’s semiconductor expertise with the Cisco engineering team, we will accelerate our plans for Cisco’s next generation product portfolio and bring new capabilities to the market faster,” Rob Salvagno, head of Cisco’s M&A and venture investing team wrote in a blog post announcing the purchase.

When the deal closes, the Leaba team will report to Core Hardware Group, led by Cisco senior vice president, Ravi Cherukuri, according to the blog post.

The company actually doesn’t even have a shipping product yet, R Ray Wang, founder at Constellation Research told TechCrunch. “They haven’t even finished their prototype. This is an acqui-hire for next generation semi-conductor [technology]. Think networking at the chip level,” he said.

This is not the first time the Leaba founding team has launched and sold a cutting edge chip production company, according to report in Globes, an Israeli business publication. The founding team, which consists of CEO Eyal Dagan and CTO Ofer Eini sold Dune Networks to Broadcom for $178 million in 2009.

Today’s news comes just the day after the company announced it was buying CliQr, a cloud hybrid services management platform for $260 million and just about a month after it bought Jasper Technologies for $1.4 billion.

Cisco is walking a fine transformational line here. On one hand, the purchase pattern suggests that the company is trying to pivot from its networking hardware roots to a business centered around services as the CliQr and Jasper Technologies would suggest.

Much like IBM, Cisco is looking to the future and trying to use its cash hoard to make strategic purchases to help speed up that transition.

At the same time, it’s not quite ready to give up completely on its hardware roots and purchasing a leading-edge semiconductor company suggests that it is still looking to a future where it can continue to lead in the networking hardware space.

Amazon to Sell IC for Reaching the Cloud

Amazon is entering the communication IC business with Alpine chips that will speed up home network connection with data servers and the cloud (see below). While Intel focuses on the high end data centers, Amazon is using Alpine chips to accelerate part of the cloud communication that has been slow to advance. Amazon bought the Israeli company Annapurna last year. 

This is a new experiment for Amazon to enter semiconductor design, perhaps they realize that Apple's iPhone, iPad Secret Sauce - Semiconductors . 

It is very likely that Amazon is also using Annapurna engineers to further optimize their own data center operations. A slow communication with home data networks can slow Amazon cloud web services.

Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Amazon Enters Semiconductor Business With Its Own Branded Chips

Amazon’s Annapurna Labs targets customers designing home equipment

By 

DON CLARK and

 

GREG BENSINGER

Jan. 6, 2016 7:02 p.m. ET

A secretive  Amazon.com Inc. unit broke its silence Wednesday about plans to market computer chips and related components to other companies.

Annapurna Labs, an Israeli company purchased by Amazon last year that is now based in Silicon Valley, said it is targeting customers designing home equipment like Wi-Fi routers, data storage gear and media-streaming devices.

Some of its technology is already available in commercial products, Annapurna said. It cited manufacturers that include Asustek Computer Inc., Netgear Inc. and Synology Inc.

Annapurna said its products include chips based on technology licensed by ARM Holdings PLC, the most widely used processor type in smartphones. Intel Corp., the biggest supplier of chips used in personal computers, has tried for years to crack ARM’s hold in smartphones with little success.

Annapurna said it was trying to address the issue that many home devices are severely limited in computing and networking power. Its Alpine chips, the company said, pack up to four processors and multiple kinds of networking technology to boost the performance of its customers’ products.

In January, when Amazon bought Annapurna, purportedly for around $350 million, according to people familiar with the matter, it seemed likely the retailer would deploy its chip technology in data centers related to its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services.

Amazon has shown a willingness to buy hardware development firms to halt their retail sales and develop technology for internal use. That is what it did with Kiva Systems, a warehouse robot developer that it bought for about $775 million in 2012, ending the robot maker’s growing business selling to other retailers.

So it is somewhat unusual that Annapurna is selling its chips to other firms. It isn’t yet clear what plans Amazon may have for Annapurna beyond the Alpine chips. An Amazon spokesman declined to comment about the division.

Annapurna Labs was founded in 2011 by Avigdor Willenz, founder of chip-design company Galileo Technologies Ltd., which was acquired in 2000 by Marvell Technology Group Ltd. for $2.7 billion. The chip maker originally was funded by Mr. Willenz and people related to him.

Patent Court Ruling and US Semiconductors Industry

The implication of a ruling by "U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit—the federal appellate court responsible for all patent law appeals—made the entire industry gasp with its Carnegie Mellon University v. Marvell decision in August. In its ruling, the court suggested that a chip merely designed in the United States may infringe a U.S. patent, even if the contract is inked overseas and the chip is made, delivered and used in another country, never once touching American soil. If this suggestion becomes law.." is discussed below.

Time will tell how this decision will impact future semiconductor patent litigation cases. On the surface, based on this case any product that was designed in the US is infringed even if all sales are outside of USA. The determining factor will be the meaning of "design win" (see below).


Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

The Decision That Could Change the US Semiconductor Industry

Benjamin T. Horton and Cameron B. Pick, Corporate Counsel

December 24, 2015

The United States is the undisputed leader of the semiconductor world. It’s a $340 billion industry that spent $35 billion on research and development in 2014, and has spent at least 15 percent of the industry’s revenue on R&D in each of the last 15 years. Seventeen of the top 25 global semiconductor design companies—and nine of the top 10—are based in the United States, according to the Committee on Comparative National Innovation Policies. There are roughly 250,000 domestic semiconductor jobs, with another 1 million supporting jobs. As the Semiconductor Industry Association says, “It All Starts Here.”

It is understandable, then, that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit—the federal appellate court responsible for all patent law appeals—made the entire industry gasp with its Carnegie Mellon University v. Marvell decision in August. In its ruling, the court suggested that a chip merely designed in the United States may infringe a U.S. patent, even if the contract is inked overseas and the chip is made, delivered and used in another country, never once touching American soil. If this suggestion becomes law, the impact would be seismic.

Though it offered this suggestion, the court did not actually decide whether Marvell’s international sales infringed Carnegie Mellon’s U.S. patents, so all is not yet lost. Rather, all is open for debate. Title 35 of the United States Code says, “whoever without authority makes, uses … or sells … within the United States … infringes the patent.” 35 U.S.C. § 271(a). The court seemed content that chips cannot infringe U.S. patents if they were internationally manufactured, shipped and used. Whether those same chips are considered “sold” in the United States, however, was not quite so simple a question for the court. The court’s uncertainty comes as a shock. Until now, most of the patent world had been quite certain that chips made, shipped and used outside the United States are very much extraterritorial.

The Court’s Earlier Views

The Federal Circuit was not always so unsure of the boundaries of extraterritoriality when it came to semiconductors. In fact, it used to be relatively straightforward. In Power Integrations v. Fairchild Semiconductor (2013), for example, the Federal Circuit decided that the patent owner could not recover lost profits based on the defendant’s foreign sales of chips made and shipped abroad, even assuming that the foreign sales were “the direct, foreseeable result of Fairchild’s domestic infringement.” There, the court stated, “foreign exploitation of a patented invention ... is not infringement at all.” Similarly, in Halo Electronics v. Pulse Electronics (2014), the Federal Circuit found that the defendant met regularly with Cisco design engineers in the U.S., sent product samples to Cisco for pre-approval in the U.S., attended sales meetings with customers in the U.S. and provided post-sale support for products in the U.S. The court decided that this did not constitute a sale within the U.S., because the products were “manufactured, ordered, invoiced, shipped, and delivered abroad.” In the most recent decision, however, the court seemed to be going in a different direction.

In Carnegie Mellon, the Federal Circuit reiterated some well-known concepts on the location of a sale, e.g. the place of the legal commitment to buy and sell, the place of delivery and the place of ordering. But the court further stated that “[t]he standards for determining where a sale may be said to occur do not pinpoint a single, universally applicable fact that determines the answer, and it is not even settled whether a sale can have more than one location.” The court went on to broadly suggest that a sale may occur at the place where substantial activities of the sales transactions occurred. This “substantial activities” language seems to embody the court’s recent uncertainty on extraterritoriality. As part of that uncertainty, the court suggested that the design of a chip could be part of the chip’s sales cycle and, therefore, may be considered “substantial activity,” especially if the activity is custom design, or a “design win,” something the court considered more closely integrated with the sales cycle. According toQuality-Adjusted Price Measurement: A New Approach With Evidence from Semiconductors, custom design wins may account for as much as 25 percent of the semiconductor industry, making the court’s suggestion an expensive one.

The Meaning of a ‘Design Win’

So what, exactly, does the Federal Circuit consider a design win? According to the court, a design win occurs when a designer’s custom chip is purchased and enters mass production. Generally, a design win results in exclusive use of the customized chip for a certain period. To secure a design win, the design is tailored to the customer’s product. This typically encompasses a lengthy sales cycle involving extensive joint work over several years, which may include designing, simulating, testing, evaluating and qualifying the chips, and likely providing samples. With all these considerations, a design win may involve a bevy of new steps, factors and locations.

So the Federal Circuit is now fascinated with design wins. What does that mean? It means that products and transactions previously thought to be extraterritorial, and therefore beyond the reach of U.S. patents, are vulnerable. The court’s discussion of what activity constitutes a design win, however, may provide clues as to how a semiconductor company might shift (from a legal standpoint) design wins outside the United States, even if some portion of the design is done in the United States. For each design win factor located outside the United States, the sale of the chip may be more likely to be considered extraterritorial, and therefore outside the scope of United States patents.

Possible Solutions

So how can a company with U.S. design activity, particularly custom design activity, move “design wins” overseas? Here are a few suggestions based on the court’s discussion:

• Simulations Perform system simulations and post-layout simulations for custom designs on overseas machines, and provide waveforms from the system simulations to overseas customers, even if unit and subsystem simulations occur in the United States and/or the test software for the simulations is developed in the United States.

• Manufacture/Marking Relocate manufacturing of sample custom products to foreign foundries, and move or outsource the sample marking process overseas.

• Storage Store samples (even temporarily) overseas before they ultimately reach the foreign customer. This way, no product ships directly from the United States.

• Program/Configure Relocate the programming or configuration of sample devices overseas.

• Test Move the testing process, or at least a component of the testing process (e.g. burn-in or ESD), overseas. Even if the protocol or software is developed in the United States, an oven or lab in another country can shift a valuable component of the sales cycle.

Currently, there is no timetable as to when these questions about U.S. design activity and U.S. patents may be conclusively resolved. In the meantime, your authors, and an entire industry, will be watching and waiting.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice.

China Increasing IC Power

China is flexing its muscles and is increasing its stakes in semiconductor manufacturing. It has made life difficult for Qualcomm in recent negotiations (see the article below).  

China's state-owned Tsinghua Unigroup tried to buy Micron in July 2015 ( proposed purchase of Micron shows China wants to either co-opt or buy foreign chipmakers ). In September China's Tsinghua to buy Western Digital stake . Interestingly, in October 2015 Western Digital to buy SanDisk in $19 billion deal . All these deals end up giving China's Tsinghua a stake in SanDisk. 

Considering the fact that Chinese factories are using over 60 percent of the world's chips annually, it is not surprising that they are attempting to climb up the design value chain.

Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

China chips away at U.S., Taiwan semiconductor dominance

China's multi-billion dollar drive towards self-reliance in semiconductors has spawned a cluster of chip designers that industry experts say could eventually rival leaders Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) and MediaTek Inc (2454.TW).

The world's second-largest economy now boasts nine companies that design and sell chips in the global top 50 from just one in 2009. Clients such as Chinese smartphone manufacturers have also helped compatriot chip designers amass a market share of almost a fifth, according to data analyst TrendForce.

The rise of Chinese designers such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] subsidiary HiSilicon and Spreadtrum Communications comes as the government ploughs funds into home-grown technology to reduce cyber-security risk, following revelations in 2013 of U.S. global cyber-snooping programs.

The revelations have made China a harder place for U.S. tech firms to do business, with Qualcomm saying as recently as last month that it faced delays closing licensing agreements. In contrast, sales at Chinese designers are set to surge this year, some by as much as 40 percent, said researcher IC Insights.

"The Chinese fabless industry is expanding by leaps and bounds," said Bernstein analyst Mark Li, referring to designers which contract out fabrication to so-called foundries such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) (2330.TW).

Chinese chip designers lag top rivals in terms of technology by four to five years yet have the potential to disrupt the global chip supply chain, industry experts and executives said.

But in terms of size, China is likely to seize second place in the $20 billion-plus chip design industry from Taiwan this year, Li said.

PAST MISTAKES

Chinese factories use over 60 percent of the world's chips annually, and in 2013 imported more chips by value than crude oil. To promote domestic development, the government has tasked chip firms with raising revenue by more than 20 percent annually and building "a group of world-class companies" by 2030.

China's list of chip design hopefuls include HiSilicon plus Spreadtrum and RDA Microelectronics Inc - both controlled by state-backed Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd - as well as All Winner Technology Co Ltd (300458.SZ), Leadcore Technology, Galaxycore Microelectronics and Goodix Technology.

"Only by being a market leader can you be profitable," said Tsinghua Unigroup Chairman Zhao Weiguo.

Through a $21.7 billion national fund, as well as at least five other government-led investment vehicles in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing, China has approximately $32 billion under management to build national champions in the chip ecosystem, according to consulting McKinsey & Co.

"Their IC design can become a strong force in a few years," TSMC co-Chief Executive Officer Mark Liu said in a recent interview, referring to chips as integrated circuits (IC).

"However, the system has to reward innovation. You cannot just want market share and dump a lot of low price products into the market. That is not going to help the Chinese IC design sector to grow," Liu said. "So there are good parts and I hope they avoid the bad parts."

There is concern in the industry about a repeat of China's previous efforts to develop industries, such as solar panels and liquid crystal displays (LCD), where overzealous investment led to oversupply and plunging prices.

China made up 14 percent of the global LCD market last year from 3 percent in 2010, while the industry's average profit margin declined to 1.2 percent from 7.8 percent over the same period, wrote Bernstein's Li in a recent report.

"China will not stop until it dominates the market, with value and economics being destroyed every single time," said Li.

(Reporting by Yimou Lee, Miyoung Kim, J.R. Wu; Additional reporting by Paul Carsten; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

Apple Watch Manufacturing Highlights

The article below summarize key aspects of the new Apple watch. It is important to remember that Apple goal is to extend its ecosystem to a new interface- the watch. It pushing the manufacturing envelope further-


‘”The encapsulation of the entire printed circuit board assembly into a single monolithic module is especially noteworthy,” Keller said. “Whereas many products might have some form of semi-flexible encapsulant applied to the board for protection, shock and vibration purposes, Apple has effectively created one large IC out of the entire assembly. This encapsulation is done by encasing the board in the same plastic/epoxy material used for conventional ICs. Indeed, many of the devices found inside the assembly are already encapsulated, effectively creating an IC-within-an-IC affair."

Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.

Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

Apple Watch has lowest cost to price ratio

Posted by IT-Online on May 5, 2015

The much-anticipated new Apple Watch has the lowest hardware costs compared to retail price of any Apple phone IHS Technology has researched, according to a preliminary estimate by IHS and its Teardown Mobile Handsets Intelligence Service.The teardown of the Apple Watch Sport by IHS Technology estimates that the actual hardware costs are only about 24 percent of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). Estimated hardware cost to MSRP ratios for other Apple products reviewed by IHS are in the range of 29% to 38%.

The teardown of the Apple Watch Sport 38 mm by IHS Technology shows a bill of materials of $81.20 with the cost of production rising to $83.70 when the $2.50 manufacturing expense is added. The retail price of the Apple Watch Sport 38 mm is $349.00. The IHS Technology analysis does not include logistics, amortised capital expenses, overhead, SG&A, R&D, software, IP licensing and other variables throughout the supply chain such as the EMS provider.

“It is fairly typical for a first-generation product rollout to have a higher retail price versus hardware cost,” says Kevin Keller, senior principal analyst-materials and cost benchmarking services for IHS Technology. “While retail prices always tend to decrease over time, the ratio for the Apple Watch is lower than what we saw for the iPhone 6 Plus and other new Apple products, and could be of great benefit to Apple’s bottom line if sales match the interest the Apple Watch has generated.”

There are several new features and manufacturing methods used in the Apple Watch Sport, including: a Pulse Oximeter, Force Touch sensor, “Taptic Engine” feedback, encapsulated modular printed circuit board (PCB) assembly and stacked-die integrated circuits (IC). “While these features have been promoted by Apple and none are necessarily revelatory,” Keller says. “It is noteworthy that many features are appearing for the first time – in combination – in one device. It could be a bellwether for other future Apple products.”

The Taptic Engine built into the Apple Watch, and integrated with the loudspeaker, contains a linear actuator which provides haptic feedback and vibrations. “We found that the device consumes a substantial amount of space inside the watch, and we would expect further miniaturization of this function in future iterations of the product,” he adds.

The preliminary results of the teardown do not show any big surprises in the IC content; all of the manufacturers identified so far were expected. The Apple Watch NAND memory is a Toshiba Flash 8GB and DRAM is a Micron SDRAM 512Mb. Broadcom, STMicro, Maxim, Analogue Devices and NXP are used for connectivity and interface. One noteworthy change is a shift from Invensense to STMicro for the accelerometer/gyroscope.

“The display is LG’s plastic OLED display and the touchscreen overlay module is a TPK Slim GG utilising their ‘Force Touch’ technology,” Keller says. “Force Touch was recently incorporated into the latest MacBook and is expected to be found in the next iPhone generation.”

The fabrication of the enclosure continues the Apple “Unibody” tradition of precision machining from a single block of aluminium. Apple is now extending this design philosophy into a highly miniaturized realm, mating the legacy of precision watchmaking with Apple’s specialized manufacturing practices. As with their previous products, Apple has taken fabrication techniques – once typically restricted to low-volume manufacturing and prototyping – and scaled them into a high-volume production environment.

‘”The encapsulation of the entire printed circuit board assembly into a single monolithic module is especially noteworthy,” Keller said. “Whereas many products might have some form of semi-flexible encapsulant applied to the board for protection, shock and vibration purposes, Apple has effectively created one large IC out of the entire assembly. This encapsulation is done by encasing the board in the same plastic/epoxy material used for conventional ICs. Indeed, many of the devices found inside the assembly are already encapsulated, effectively creating an IC-within-an-IC affair.

“To provide electromagnetic shielding, the encapsulated PCB assembly is further treated with a metalized coating deposited over the surface,” Keller adds. “This shielding process is used in place of conventional stamped sheet metal shielding, saving a significant amount of space, as well as cutting down slightly on weight.”

The Apple Watch is equipped with inductive charging technology and is being shipped with a wireless charger, based on Apple’s own proprietary MagSafe charging technology.

“It has been speculated that the Apple Watch could be compatible with the Wireless Power Consortium’s (WPC) Qi wireless charging specification,” says Vicky Yussuff, analyst-power supplies & wireless power for IHS. “AppleInsider recently shared a video which appears to show the Apple Watch MagSafe charger being used to charge the Moto 360 smart watch. This would suggest that Apple’s charger is Qi-compatible.

“Apple has not been announced as a member of the WPC or even a supporter of the consortium, so it is unlikely that they have produced a ‘certified’ Qi product. However, the Qi specification is an open standard meaning it is still possible for Apple to build products which are compatible to the specification. This could be the case with the Apple Watch MagSafe charger,” Yussuff says. “Although it cannot be verified if both the Moto 360 smartwatch and
Magsafe wireless charger used in the video were both un-modified ‘off the shelf’ products, this could potentially be another boost for the wireless charging industry looking to increase interoperability.”

The Apple Watch battery appears to be somewhat simpler to replace than the batteries in many other Apple products. As long as the display can be carefully removed, the battery is attached with a simple snap-on connector.