News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors by kuschku on Monday October 18, 2021 @04:48PM (#28911517)
> I would love to be enlightened about the new physics that Apple is using which is out of reach to the other engineers.

That’s known as private-public key crypto with keys burnt into efuses on-die on the SoC.

You can’t get around that (except for that one dude in Shenzhen who just drills into the SoC and solders wires by hand which happen to hit the right spots). But generally, no regular third party repair shop will find a way around this.

Re:Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors by mrtksn on Monday October 18, 2021 @05:10PM (#28911804)
I know about it, it simply means that someone will build a device that automates the thing that the dude in Shenzhen does or they will mix and match devices that have different kind of damage. I.e. if a phone that has destroyed screen(irreparable) will donate its parts to phones that have the face id lens broken.

You know, these encryption authentications work between ICs and not between lenses and motors. Keep the coded IC, change the coil. Things also have different breaking modes, for example a screen might break down due to the glass failure(which cannot be coded) and the repair shop can replace the broken assembly part when keeping the IC that ensures the communication with the mainboard. Too complicated for a street shop? Someone will build a service that does it B2B, shops will ship it ti them, they will ship it back leaving only the installation to the street shop.

Possibilities are endless. Some easier some harder but we are talking about talent that makes all kind of replicas of all kind of devices. With billions of iPhones out there, it's actually very lucrative market to be able to salvage 1000USD device, their margins could be even better than the margins of Apple when they charge 100USD to change the glass of the LCD assembly.

Re:Apple’s new M1 Pro and M1 Max processors by kuschku on Monday October 18, 2021 @07:36PM (#28913219)
Compared to a thinkpad where I can replace the parts with a screwdriver myself, this is still an incredibly wasteful effort.