Following on from their previous reports, GeekBar is today highlighting a new set of schematics for a chip codenamed ‘Phosphorus’. The site claims the chip will serve similar roles to the M7 in the current iPhone 5s, but with additional functionality. It is very unlikely that Phosphorus will be used in official Apple marketing as it seems to be an internal codename for the chip.
The new unit appears to be able to communicate with an external accessory, as well as perform pedometer and motion tracking functions seen in the M7. Therefore, it may be possible for the new iPhones to communicate with external health and fitness devices in a low-power state, without waking the rest of the A8 SoC. The obvious speculation is that this may be a key part of how Apple intends the iWatch to synchronize with your phone, sending information like blood pressure and glucose levels to a user’s nearby iOS device.
As with GeekBar’s images, it is hard to directly pinpoint just from the details in the schematics, which significantly affects their trustworthiness. They seem confident though that these documents are for iPhone devices. Apple is expected to announce the new iPhone at a media event on the 9th of September. If Apple follows historic patterns, press invites for the event should go out sometime next week.
