iPhone 6’s “Phosphorus” Could Turn Out To Be A Barometric Pressure Sensor

The iPhone 5s might have simply been another “S” upgrade to the iPhone lineup, but thanks to its new processor, the M7 co-processor, and the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, it turned out to be an entirely different beast, and in a good way too. Now presumably with the iPhone 6, Apple is expected to continue the trend of offering a co-processor.

An earlier report had allegedly revealed the schematics of the iPhone 6’s co-processor, which is presumably the M8 and has been given the codename “Phosphorus”. However according to a recent post on the MacRumors forum by poster leecbaker, he claims that Phosphorus is not the M8 co-processor, but most likely a barometric pressure sensor.

According to him, “The chip pictured has the part number BMP282. I’m 99.99% sure this is a Bosch barometric pressure sensor, similar to this part BMP280 . Variants of one part often have slightly different part numbers- if Apple got Bosch to customize the chip for them with different packaging, or a slightly different measurement range, that would explain the difference in part number.”

He goes on to state several uses of the sensor which can be used to enhance GPS navigation, indoor navigation, outdoor navigation, weather forecast, healthcare applications, and so on. It is possible that his claims are right, although we guess this depends on whether the leaked schematic we saw was even the real deal in the first place.

In any case take it with a grain of salt for now, but assuming Apple will launch the iPhone 6 on the 9th of September, we guess we won’t have to wait too long to find out more, but either way this is an alternate theory worth your consideration.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones, Rumors
Tags: iphone 6