Top all-time · #5841
Rainer Brockerhoff
Personal blog · brockerhoff.net/blogprogramminghardwaredesign
Rainer Brockerhoff writes Solipsism Gradient, a personal blog at brockerhoff.net about programming, hardware and design. Since 2008, 13 different Hacker News readers have linked it 15 times, most often “Breakdown of Apple lightning port”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-12-31, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Commenters on Lightning and USB threads cite these posts on Apple's Lightning connector, arguing its extra pins are for adaptive power and data rather than authentication. One commenter urges readers to start there.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Rainer Brockerhoff writes finely crafted software for the Macintosh.
Most-linked posts?
- Breakdown of Apple lightning port5 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2012-09-24
- /blog/2012/09/13/boom-2/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-09-19
What Hacker News says?
> If they can't even do 1080p lossless right now, they are in much deeper trouble for the future. Let me try and shed some light on this mystery. Consider this rumor. Also, I am not an electrical engineer, so I may be talking out of my ass. As best as I can tell, Lightning is not (yet, anyway) a real protocol like Firewire, USB, etc. What it is so far is USB with a different connector and some negotiating chips. So…
Comment linking /blog/2012/09/23/boom-pins/
on “(Presumably) Apple engineer comment on Lightning AV adapter design”Submitted Breakdown of Apple lightning port as a story · 88 points
HN discussionLightning is much, much, much more sophisticated than the brain-damage that is USB [1]. [1] http://brockerhoff.net/blog/2012/09/23/boom-pins/
Comment linking /blog/2012/09/23/boom-pins/
on “The Lightning Digital AV Adapter Surprise”Submitted Swift: First Impressions as a story · 2 points
HN discussionA minimal amount of googling would've uncovered the actual purpose of the chip: http://brockerhoff.net/blog/2012/09/23/boom-pins/ Care to provide any sources describing the DRM capabilities?
Comment linking /blog/2012/09/23/boom-pins/
on “Apple kills a Kickstarter project”Submitted Boom (iPhone 5 has Lightning instead of Micro USB) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis post explains that a little bit: http://brockerhoff.net/blog/2012/09/13/boom-2/ Essentially, his conclusion is that micro USB can't support everything Apple wants the connector to do.
Comment linking /blog/2012/09/13/boom-2/
on “iPhone 5 review”Submitted The Snowball Effect -- on the MacBook Air and the product design process as a story · 2 points
HN discussionHere's an interesting response: http://brockerhoff.net/bb/viewtopic.php?p=2417#2417
Comment linking /bb/viewtopic.php?p=2417
on “Japanese engineers trash MacBook Air”Submitted A Tale of Two Certs as a story · 1 points
HN discussionCode Signatures are pretty complex on macOS. A macOS app can contain multiple executables with embedded code signatures. Non-executable resources in bundles are signed individually. Individual resources could potentially be signed with different certificates. Then there is the "designated requirement", which allows you to determine what requirements there are on code signatures. Some resources could be optional (eg.…
Comment linking /RB/AppCheckerLite/
on “Ask HN: How to safely install Mac dev tools?”Submitted SoC speed restrictions preclude Apple from releasing a Lightning-to-USB3 cable as a story · 1 points
HN discussionYes the thing that sunk Nokia was a different connector. Why didn't we see it before? If you'd like some reading on the lightning connector start here http://brockerhoff.net/blog/2012/09/13/boom-2/ And follow through the update pages.
Comment linking /blog/2012/09/13/boom-2/
on “Apple's smallest mistake”There's no good reason to suspect these are authentication chips. See, e.g. http://brockerhoff.net/blog/2012/09/23/boom-pins/ Just like Thunderbolt, the chip is most likely used to make the cable adaptive (so that all pins can be used for data, or power, as-needed). Quoting the author: I really see no justification for the “authentication chip” hypothesis, and even their diagram doesn’t show any single “power pin of…
Comment linking /blog/2012/09/23/boom-pins/
on “Apple Lightning cables have an authentication chip inside”"Oh my god! There's a chip! It must be used for authentication!" I'd read up on some analysis from someone with a EE background before I'd trust a shop that sells $650 headphone cables (Double Helix, the original source that Slashgear conveniently forgets to cite.) http://brockerhoff.net/blog/2012/09/23/boom-pins/
Comment linking /blog/2012/09/23/boom-pins/
on “Apple Lightning cables have an authentication chip inside”
