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Comment by joezydeco | Hacker News Reader

The AT command set is very much alive and well. All those cellular chips in your smartphones and IoT devices still communicate with their host processors over a serial communication line, identical to the Hayes box back in 1978.

The commands have gotten more complicated, but as far as I know ATI will still give you a typical part identification code.

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It truly is. For an example look at these guys juggling AT commands to control 5G modems fresh off the production line - https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/3vx1k1r3-39.

Qualcomm (and maybe others) have alternatives though such as QMI.

I'm figuring that Apple has probably developed their own as well.

You certainly used to be able to get a tty to the baseband and enter AT commands on a jailbroken iPhone back in the iPhone 5 (or so) days...

https://www.theiphonewiki.com/wiki/Baseband_Commands

Right. But Apple bought the entire cell modem arm of Intel three years ago. This should be fun.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/07/apple-to-acquire-the-...

I don't think that's a bad thing. Qualcomm absolutely dominates high-end modem chips right now and, if Apple can pull it off, competition will be good for the industry.

Only the Chinese (Huawei/HiSilicon) have come close to challenging Qualcomm in recent years, until they got shut down by US import restrictions and seem to have given up at this point.

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