According to a teardown by Chipworks, the iPhone 5s now uses an accelerometer made by Bosch Sensortech, while older models of the smartphone employ STMicroelectronics silicon. Interestingly, STM still makes the three-axis gyroscope in the 5s.

What accelerometer does the iPhone use?

All iOS devices have a three-axis accelerometer, which delivers acceleration values in each of the three axes shown in Figure 1. The values reported by the accelerometers are measured in increments of the gravitational acceleration, with the value 1.

Who created the accelerometer?

George Atwood invented the very first accelerometer in the 1700s. The Atwood machine, as it was called, consists of masses on springs where the velocity is calculated based on displacements experienced.