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3G iPhone firmware leaked: tri-band HSDPA and GPS are go

It's easy to take for granted the 3G iPhone's launch at this point. After all, Steve said it was "coming later this year," as did a number of prominent mobile executives. And then there's been the barrage of carrier announcements, many in international markets that use UMTS and have zero support for the iPhone as we know it today. But the fact of the matter is we've had very little to go on by way of material evidence -- until now.

We have it from a reliable source that a version of the 3G iPhone's firmware has been released -- possibly for carrier partners currently field-testing the device -- and has since been dissected. While nothing is ever guaranteed, in combing through the raw data, we think we got more than enough information on the low-level hardware and drivers that run the device to make some informed conclusions about what we can expect: quad-band GSM support (as we currently have), A-GPS (as we'd already gotten from another source), and tri-band UMTS / HSDPA -- which would make the new iPhone(s) 3G-capable in just about every market in the world. Hardware details after the break. We're through the looking-glass, people!



All the dirty details:

  • Infineon PMB6952 / S-GOLD3 six-band UMTS / HSDPA transceiver (as we'd heard)

  • Murata LMRX3JCA-479 tri-band amplifier (we're assuming for the 3G)

  • Sony SP9T antenna switch for GSM / UMTS dual mode

  • ARM 1176JZF-S - Main CPU (same as in 1st gen iPhone)

  • Skyworks 77427 chip - UMTS / HSDPA tx 1900MHz, rx 2100MHz

  • Skyworks 77414 chip - UMTS / HSDPA 1900MHz

  • Skyworks 77413 chip - UMTS / HSDPA 850MHz

  • Internal build model number: n82ap (1st gen iPhone was model m68ap)

  • UMTS Power Saving option - on or off

  • Hooks for Global Locate Library (GLL), software that handles A-GPS related commands for the host processor