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The Amazing
‘i’Phone
Apple’s iPhone is a thoughtfully designed product that
integrates best-of-breed technologies from Infineon,
Samsung, Broadcom, Intel, Linear Technologies,
STMicroelectronics, Triquint, NXP Semiconductors, Texas
Instruments, Marvell
And many more.
Julian John
Phone 3G, a marvel product from Apple, has enticed users
with its applications and amaxed techies with its
inside. It is global effort of more than 10,000 people
from over 30 countries on three continents. Apple has
created a difference with its most innovative design
and, of course the software that gives iPhone its unique
identity.
The macro-level teardown of an iPhone eG has basically
five elements- display glass, LCD, panel. The eloseup of
the logic board .
Touch Screen and display
iPhone features a revolution in user interface: Its
large multi-touch screen responds to both toch points
and their movements (like spreading fingers apart to
zoom in or pinching in ot zoom out) simultaneously.
The screen has two main parts, the glass and the
digitizer/ LCD. iPhone 2G had these components glued
together, which made replacement of screens (entire
display units ) very expensive. Good news is that the
glass and the LCD screen are separate in 3G.
The capacitive touch-screens used in 3G come from sharp
and Sanyo Epson. Broadcom’s BCM5974 cguo us ysed as the
touch controller and Texas Instrument s (TI) provides
the Line driver. National Semiconductors LM2512AA
provides display interface. Two boards (PCBs)-logic and
communication-found In the earlier iPhone are now
integrated into a single board that is laid along the
length.
Processor and memory
Samsung has provided the DDR SDRAM and the main
processor (S3C6400 based on ARM1176 core). S3C6400 is a
16-/32-bit RISC microprocessor designed to provide
cost-effective, low power and high performance
application solutions for mobile phones. The same
processor has been used in iPhone 2G too. Externally,
the main memory comes in 8GB and 16GB NAND flash form
Toshiba. SST’s SST25VF080B chip provides 1MB serial
flash.
Power Management
Infineon’s SMARTi power management IC SMP3i 6820 is
optimized to support modem and data card applications.
System level power is contrlooed and managed through NXP
chip. Triquint provides three power amplifiers, each
working on different frequencies and providing highly
integrated linear amplifier, duplexer and coup;er. For
communications function, Sky works SKY77340 provides
power amplification in quad-band GSM/EDGE.
Battery iPhone EG faces the same battery limitations a
other smart phones when used for the internet on a 3G
network. It used a lithium-lion polymer battery rated at
3.7V and 1150 mAh (milliamp ere-hours). The battery is
not soldered, unlike the battery in 2G version, making
it user-replaceable.
3G. Linear Techology’s LTC4088-2 takes care of battery
charging and USB power control.
Other ICs
Infineon provides solutions for as many as four key
design aspects. Other than the power management IC
mentioned aove, it provides UMTS transceiver, base band
processor and GPS receiver.
GPS. The in-built GPS capability is provided by
Infineon’s PMB2525
Hammerhead II GPS that is integrated with assisted GPS(A-GPS).
It provides low-noise RF front and multi-path
mitigation, which he hops in reducing errors in urban
areas. Assisted GPS takes assistance to discover its
position from the GOA equipment at the cell phone towers
that maintain constant connection with the GPS
satellite. Thus the GPS receiver on the iPhone need not
e in always-‘on’ mode.
Accelerometer. Changing the orientation from landscape
to portrait and vice versa is possible because of
STMicorelectronics LIS331 DL accelerometer. nUse of this
chip has given platform to many application developers
for innovations in gaming photography, etc. Audio.
Wolfso WM6180C is the audio codec that replaces the
original WM8758. Audio formats supported by iPhone eG
are AAC, Protected AAc, MP3, MP3VBR, Audible (formats 2,
3 and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV.
Wireless capability. The two chips at the back of the
main board are Marvell’s single-chip 88W8686 offering
Wi-Fi and CSRn Bluecore6-ROM
Camera. iPhone 3G comes with the same 2megapixel camera
as iniPhone 2G, while iPhone 3GS comes with a 3MPcamera
that is capable of VGA video recording.
It’s about putting the best together….
Just like an iPhone which is a combination o different
technology, Delhi, where we disassembled the iPhone
2Gand 3G. Firms like Semiconductors Insights, Tec online
and ifixit cracked the mystery of most of the chips used
in the iPhone.
Many experts have experimented their way with an iPhone.
For instance, a Japanese hobbyist has turned his iPhone
3GS into a humanoid robot by wiring it to a mechanical
body, where the iPhone 3GS acts a the controller.
Ultimately, it is the combination of human interface,
speed and applications that really counts for a stylish
product like an iPhone to be different. You too can use
your creativity in these areas to come up with a product
that would compete with an iPhone. |
