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Comment by Iolaum | Hacker News Reader

So according to the post iphones now have an AOP (Always on Processor) running a proprietary operating system with access to other phone components. Do we know if other manufacturers also include such a processor?

A quick google search showed a relevant apple patent [0] and a similar qualcomm processor product for wearables [1] which suggests to me this (always on processors on consumer electronics) "is out there ..."

[0]: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20150362980A1/en [1]: https://www.eenewspower.com/news/12nm-always-processor-slash...

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Not for phones or wearables, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine:

“The Intel Management Engine (ME), also known as the Intel Manageability Engine, is an autonomous subsystem that has been incorporated in virtually all of Intel's processor chipsets since 2008.

[…]

The Intel Management Engine always runs as long as the motherboard is receiving power, even when the computer is turned off.”

These sorts of low-power coprocessors are quite common. You can buy Cortex-A/Cortex-M combos from multiple manufacturers on digikey.

It's not just big application processors that have them, either; some microcontrollers like the ESP32 have them as well.

> now have an AOP (Always on Processor)

They've long had this. It's how they turn on when picked up (by tracking the motion sensor) or when touching the screen (tracking capacitive sensor)

This seems different to those examples because it works when the phone is powered off. AFAIK neither pick up nor touching the screen have ever done anything when the phone is powered off, only when it’s asleep.

Yes, exactly. Many of the things I’ve seen mentioned in the comments, such as wake on motion or responding to “hey Siri” are waking from sleep. AFAIK, you can’t power on via motion or hey Siri.

You can wake from sleep via motion, and presumably from the perspective of the AOP, there isn't really a difference between "turn on" and "wake from sleep".

It’s still the same AOP coprocessor

The iPhone already runs a proprietary operating system.

With a closed source compiler (Apple clang is not the clang you or I can compile, unless they have no tuning models for their own silicon)

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