9to5 Mac reports that Chipworks has performed an in-depth teardown of Apple’s new Lightning cable (I love that even Apple’s cables are interesting enough to warrant teardowns!), revealing that the cable contains a TI chip, “BQ2025†(as well as several others, of course!), which is a bit of a mystery, as it is not listed on TI’s website. Looking at four other similar chips that are listed on TI’s website, Chipworks surmises that the BQ2025 could have “some security implementationâ€. 9to5 Mac says that it is also possible that the chip is used by the Lightning connector as a way of conserving electricity, perhaps by only drawing the required amount of electricity to fully charge the device, and then stopping at that point. This could be why the iPhone 5 has been found to cost just 41 cents per year for a daily charge. Chipworks goes on to say that the Lightning cable is the first secure cable that it has seen with such a security device built in.
Source: TI chip in Lightning cable could allow iOS devices to save electricity when charging | 9to5Mac