[HN Gopher] Apple didn't revolutionize power supplies; new trans...
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Apple didn't revolutionize power supplies; new transistors did
(2012)
Author : Rondom
Score : 39 points
Date : 2021-09-29 22:01 UTC (59 minutes ago)
(HTM) web link (www.righto.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.righto.com)
| wyager wrote:
| While obviously Jobs' claim was false, I will say that Apple is
| the _only_ company I am aware of that manufacturers power
| supplies which are reliably _completely_ free of perceptible
| inductor whine. I have very acute high-frequency hearing and I
| often have to replace non-Apple USB(-C) switching power supplies
| with Apple ones so I don't go crazy from the whining. Teardowns
| of Apple PSUs typically reveal very favorable electronic and
| industrial design as well.
| bayindirh wrote:
| My old MacBook Pro's power brick has perceptible inductor
| whine. It's not screamingly high, but I can hear it when it's
| near.
|
| Probably my ears' sensitivity, and that little thing's age (~13
| years) are both contributing factors.
| errantspark wrote:
| Don't worry, that problem will solve itself with time. Just let
| the lowpass in your ears grow a bit. ;)
|
| I will say I have been very impressed with Anker's GaN power
| bricks of late.
| Tade0 wrote:
| I have one(60W) but its output isn't very smooth. Still great
| to have just one small device to charge my phone, laptop and
| headphones.
| Syonyk wrote:
| > _I have very acute high-frequency hearing..._
|
| Doesn't take "acute," just takes "not destroyed."
|
| I've, at various points in my career, grumbled about various
| things whining audibly (one particular motion light sensor was
| defective and right outside my office for a while). The trick
| to getting other people to believe you ("I can't hear
| anything... are you sure?") is to wait for a bring-your-kids-
| to-work day. And ask if they can hear it.
|
| Or, perhaps, if it's bad enough, you don't even have to do
| that, because the kids will ask what that horrid whining noise
| is. We did eventually get it fixed after that, but I was quite
| literally the only one in the hall who could hear it.
|
| On the topic of power supplies, though - Apple has done some
| impressive work in their small power supplies. The Chinesium
| clones are similarly sized, they just skip literally every
| safety feature intended to keep mains voltage out of your USB
| cord...
| foobarian wrote:
| Gotta hand it to the kids. My 9 year old claims he can hear a
| whine from iPads and iPhones when their battery level is near
| 0%. And I thought _I_ had good hearing...
| bayindirh wrote:
| > On the topic of power supplies, though - Apple has done
| some impressive work in their small power supplies.
|
| And a nice teardown is done here, by the same guy:
| http://www.righto.com/2015/11/macbook-charger-teardown-
| surpr...
|
| > Doesn't take "acute," just takes "not destroyed."
|
| It depends. Played in an orchestra, and I've found out that
| hearing is very different from person to person. Seen people
| with hearing lower than 20Hz band, or people who can hear a
| wrong note in a symphony orchestra recording, or people who
| can _perfectly_ tune their instruments by ear... The list
| goes on and on.
|
| Our ears' equalizers are not always flat and equal. We can
| damage them yes, but not everyone starts from the same point.
| krono wrote:
| This is so off-topic, but no one ever believes me when I'm
| complaining about a wall adapter across the room driving me
| mad. Glad to know I'm really not imagining things hah!
| krrrh wrote:
| It's extremely frustrating, and I was always surprised when I
| returned mid-range USB chargers because of whine only to
| receive a replacement with the same problem and hundreds of
| reviews that failed to mention it. I've never had an issue with
| Apple chargers, and the extra cost is money we'll spent.
|
| Buy genuine Apple chargers, if not for you, then for your dog.
| vmception wrote:
| I'm guessing this article is from 2011, back when Apple fans were
| just ending their role as being a niche that believed anything.
|
| At this point it is - I think - a pretty common assumption that
| Apple just puts things together in a decent ecosystem. If Apple
| devices offers a new frequency range, its because Qualcomm's
| radio allowed for it, which was dependent on other things further
| in the stream.
|
| This is an interesting trip down memory lane. Apple still says
| magical sometimes in their keynotes, but nobody is really
| mystified only occasionally glad they decided to offer something
| in that way, since its more about the Apple implementation than
| the Apple innovation.
| gumby wrote:
| Not an Apple fanboy but I don't this is _completely_ correct.
| As a huge buyer of semiconductors they can, when they want to,
| exert a lot of pressure on suppliers. Famously they did this
| with Gorilla glass; they have done so with Intel and qcomm.
| Sometimes not so successfully (all the expense on the "liquid
| metal" company, for example).
|
| It's not all sheer pressure; they do a lot of collaborative
| design. After all they have one of the best semiconductor
| design teams (both digital and analog) around. And they are on
| standards bodies; they allegedly (some non-Apple people told
| me) contributed contributed significantly to USB-C.
|
| I emphasized _completely_ because in the modern ecosystem it's
| broadly true (RAM, displays etc)
| [deleted]
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Interesting deep dive on switching power supplies. I didn't see
| the need to frame it by attacking Apple.
| retrac wrote:
| At the time, "Apple invented the switching power supply" was a
| notion going around in bad tech/sci reporting circles, so it
| deserved dismantling along with the power supplies.
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(page generated 2021-09-29 23:00 UTC)