Now that the Apple Watch is out in the wild, we’re starting to see teardowns of its internals. iFixit has shown us the Taptic Engine, Digital Crown and tiny battery, but it wasn’t able to pry open the little computer that runs the entire device, the S1.
It turns out that the Watch’s system-on-a-chip is truly the feat of engineering Apple made it out to be. It also reveals a couple of tidbits about the Apple Watch we didn’t know yet, like that it packs the same amount of RAM as the iPhone 4.
ABI Research managed to crack open the S1 and identify its components. The Apple Watch has 512MB of RAM, (or 4GB of SRAM), 8GB of flash memory and an impressively integrated accelerometer/gyroscope sensor.
“The design is an obvious variation from Apple’s smartphones, with many high-end functions / chips included that normally would not be found in a simple watch,” said Jim Mielke, VP Engineering at ABI Research and head of the TeardownIQ group. “Judging by the complexity of the printed circuit board (PCB), and the number of parts on the PCB, one might think the Apple watch is a full-fledged cellular connected watch but in fact connectivity is limited to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC.”
The team at iFixit wasn’t able to get into the S1 because they didn’t have the right tools to loosen the “tiniest tri-wing screws” they’d ever seen. Apple calls the S1 an “an entire computer system on a single chip,” and it’s enclosed in resin to aid the Watch’s water resistance.
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
6 responses to “Apple Watch has as much RAM as iPhone 4”
As much as the iPhone 4s infact :)
yeah, shouldn’t take too many words with both chip and RAM are as equivalent as what the 4S has!
Absolutely amazing feat of engineering.
iFixit was able to open the tri-wing screws. I recommend that you re-read their post. They were unable to open the S1 because they said it was covered in resin.
Amazing engineering inside a watch.
Are you all sure about all this? My iPhone 4 doesn’t run the Watch OS — and it doesn’t fit on my wrist! :-)
It also wasn’t made by AAC! :-)