We got ahead of ourselves last week in "iPhone Seeks to Redefine the Mobile Phone [1]" (2007-01-15) when we said that the iPhone contained the in-progress 802.11n flavor of wireless networking. In fact, it's merely 802.11g [2], the same as in the original AirPort Extreme.

What can we say? All the hype about 802.11n at Macworld Expo, with the Apple TV and new AirPort Extreme Base Station must have gotten to us. The iPhone should be capable of nearly 25 Mbps of real throughput in the best circumstances, versus the 100 Mbps from 802.11n.

And, while we had heard that no Intel processor was inside, it turns out that that's a very fine point indeed. Multiple sources, including Intel, stated [3] that Apple is using an XScale processor from Marvell, a chipmaker that bought its embedded processor division mere months ago from... Intel. (The source is in Italian, but the Intel exec said, roughly: "It's not ours, but Marvell's, the company to which we sold the business that included the XScale architecture.")

[1]: http://db.tidbits.com/article/8810
[2]: http://www.apple.com/iphone/technology/specs.html
[3]: http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/SoleOnLine4/Finanza%20e%20Mercati/2007/01/grusconi_180107_bucci_intel.shtml

Permanent article URL: http://db.tidbits.com/article/8817
This is a specially formatted version of this TidBITS article that removes colors, and optionally removes images; it's designed to minimize the use of ink and paper.
Unless otherwise noted, this article is copyright © 2007 TidBITS Publishing, Inc.. TidBITS is copyright © 2008 TidBITS Publishing Inc. Reuse governed by this Creative Commons License: http://www.tidbits.com/terms/.