The Apple S1 is the integrated computer in the

Apple Watch Apple Watch is a line of smartwatches produced by Apple Inc. It incorporates fitness tracking, health-oriented capabilities, and wireless telecommunication, and integrates with iOS and other Apple products and services. The Apple Watch was rel ...

, and it is described as a " System in Package" (SiP) by

Apple Inc Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

is said to be the main supplier of key components, such as the

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

and

NAND flash Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both use ...

storage, and the assembly itself, but early teardowns reveal RAM and flash memory from

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...

and Micron Technology.

System-in-Package design

It uses a customized application processor that together with

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...

, storage and support processors for wireless connectivity, sensors and I/O constitute a complete computer in a single package. This package is filled with

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on n ...

for durability.

Components

From reverse engineering, the processor handling the

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...

and

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

is a

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wirel ...

BCM43342 and the six-axis gyroscope is from STMicroelectronics. *Apple designed 32-bit

ARMv7 ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...

based application processor APL0778 as the

central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just Processor (computing), processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes Instruction (computing), instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU per ...

(CPU), with an integrated PowerVR SGX543

graphics processing unit A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, m ...

(GPU). *512 MB DRAM from Elpida, wire bonded on top of the APL0778 CPU * NFC controller from NXP *NFC booster chip from AMS *8 GB

flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid F ...

from

SanDisk SanDisk is a brand for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquir ...

and

Wireless charging Inductive charging (also known as wireless charging or cordless charging) is a type of wireless power transfer. It uses electromagnetic induction to provide electricity to portable devices. Inductive charging is also used in vehicles, power too ...

chip from IDT *Touch controller from

ADI Adi or ADI may refer to: Names and titles * Adi (mythology), an Asura in Hindu faith who appears in the Matsya Purāṇa * Adi (name), a given name in Hebrew and a nickname in other languages * Adi (title), a Fijian title used by females of chi ...

*Integrated

gyro Gyro may refer to: Science and technology * GYRO, a computer program for tokamak plasma simulation * Gyro Motor Company, an American aircraft engine manufacturer * ''Gyrodactylus salaris'', a parasite in salmon * Gyroscope, an orientation-sta ...

accelerometer An accelerometer is a tool that measures proper acceleration. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change of velocity) of a body in its own instantaneous rest frame; this is different from coordinate acceleration, which is acc ...

from STMicroelectronics *BCM43342

/ FM/ BT combo chip from Broadcom *

Power management unit The Power Management Unit (PMU) is a microcontroller that governs power functions of digital platforms. This microchip has many similar components to the average computer, including firmware and software, memory, a CPU, input/output functions, tim ...

(PMU) from

Dialog Semiconductor Dialog Semiconductor PLC is an American founded UK-Domiciled manufacturer of semiconductor-based system solutions. The company is headquartered in the United Kingdom in Reading, with a global sales, R&D and marketing organization. Dialog create ...

S1P

The SiP in Apple Watch Series 1 is called S1P and looks superficially identical to the S1, but in reality is an S2 minus the on-chip

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

functionality. It contains the same dual-core CPU with the same new

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

capabilities as the S2 making it about 50% faster than the S1.

Announcement

The S1 was announced on 9 September 2014 as part of the "Wish we could say more" event. The S1P was announced on 7 September 2016 as part of the "See you on the 7th" event.

Launch date

The S1 made its first appearance within the Apple Watch, which arrived in April 2015. The S1 was discontinued with the launch of Apple Watch Series 1, containing the S1P. The S1P was released with the Apple Watch Series 1 on 16 September 2016.

Images

File:Apple S1 module.png, An illustration of the encapsulated S1 package. File:Apple S1P module.png, The S1P package shows little of the differences that's encapsulated inside. File:Apple-S1-chips.jpg, This illustration shows the positions of the chips and other components inside the S1 package. File:Apple-S1-in-watch.jpg, This is how large the S1 is compared to the Apple Watch case. File:S1-A6 Comparison.jpg, A size comparison of the S1 to the

Apple A6 The Apple A6 is a 32-bit package on package (PoP) system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. that was introduced on September 12, 2012 at the launch of the iPhone 5. Apple states that it is up to twice as fast and has up to twice the graphic ...

in the iPhone 5.

References

{{Apple hardware since 1998 Apple silicon