Chipworks is a world leader in reverse engineering and patent infringement analysis of the semiconductors industry. They conducted a teardown and analysis of the iPhone 5′s lightning charge cable and found a security chip.
According to Chipworks ”the Lightning cable does have four chips embedded in it, plus some passive devices. Two of these chips are very simple (only a couple of transistors), and the third is an NXP NX20P3. However, the fourth and arguably most interesting of these is the TI chip.” What makes this Texas Instruments chip “BQ2025” especially interesting, is the fact that the part number is not published by TI.
Hmmm… what might Apple be up to with this chip? Chipworks thinks its got something to do with protecting their revenue stream for cables or regulating licensed peripherals, or perhaps providing iPhone users with some modest security improvements?
