[aaronbeekay]

Yes, it’s true that you can implement a pretty simple generic lithium-ion cell charging algorithm that will get the job done for most cells. But that’s not a “modern battery pack”. If you’re trying to eke hundreds or thousands of charge cycles out of cells, implement fast charging, do accurate state of charge estimation under load and in variable thermal conditions —- those things are very difficult to implement generically, and often do have parameters that depend on the specific chemistry being used. Modern devices have to do all of those things.

Yes, TI makes money when people use their battery management ICs with fancy cell monitoring, but I don’t see a lack of price pressure on those ICs. If manufacturers could implement the same features with a less complex, less expensive design, why would all of the modern battery systems, even in competitive sectors like consumer/retail electronics, integrate battery monitoring with the cells?

[userbinator]

We're talking about a single cell for a smartphone, not something like an EV battery pack.

[aaronbeekay]

Sure, maybe there’s less need for charge balancing in a smartphone battery, but the rest of the constraints still apply - fast charging is hard!

[userbinator]

Limiting the current to what the cell manufacturer specifies is not hard.

I don't think fast charging is a good idea anyway because it wears out cells faster, but that's another rant...