Chipworks

For this teardown, we thought we would try something a little different. We are going to post the image and material lists as they come out of the lab. On the first day, you will see the standard teardown details and list of chips, and over the coming days, images inside the chips themselves.

The Research in Motion BlackBerry Playbook, part number RDJ21WW, was a bit of a delight to take on. RIM has a large office in Ottawa, and so it is fun for us to do an article with a local spin. The Playbook is a smaller form-factor tablet, with a 7″ screen versus the 10″ (approx.) screens of the Apple iPad and Motorola Xoom that it will ultimately be compared with.Where RIM took a different spin than many other tablet vendors, is in building its own operating system from the ground up (sort of, by acquiring QNX). This is an interesting approach, since QNX is known for building stable platforms and not for consumer electronics. The early reviews from some of the tablet aficionados have been mixed, but people brand new to the technology seem to be impressed. Priced in line with the iPad, RIM is aiming at a competitor who has made inroads against its traditional enterprise smartphone market.

This isn’t a review of the device, it is a look at the chips and technology inside that powers it. On the outside, this device looks . . . well, like they all do. It is kind of hard to design a box that is substantially a large screen without it looking like a large screen. The weight was good, the area around the screen sufficient for a comfortable hold, and the rubberized backing is nice to feel. A great touch was that the device shipped with a simple neoprene pouch rather than having to go and buy your own protective case. We noted (somewhat obscurely) that the case smelled almost exactly like a new luxury car, so it will be very pleasing to the executives out there who are used to such things.

The Cypress CY8CTMA3 touch screen controller is the latest TrueTouch™ technology. The die measures 3.15 mm x 3.15 mm, and for those who are interested, is the subject of a Chipworks Functional Analysis Report.

Taking a closer look at the “core” chips, we see the Elpida 1 GB DRAM packaged with the Texas Instruments OMAP4430 mobile applications processor (notably, 1 GB is the most we have seen in a package-on-package). This Elpida DRAM was notably also the same 46 nm LP DDR2 found in the Apple iPad 2 – so it is quite a high volume socket. The processor chip is fabricated at 45 nm using the dual-core ARM Cortex A9 architecture and clocked to 1 GHz. This chip includes a multimedia accelerator and the Imagination Technology graphics core. Additionally, we see the TI WiLink 7.0 Mobile Wireless LAN. The 16 GB flash memory (in this model) is provided courtesy of the Sandisk SDIN5C2-16G.

The image sensors are a bit of a story in and of themselves. In keeping with a focus on premium specifications, the Blackberry Playbook features a 5 Mp and 3 Mp camera. The 5 Mp camera is by STMicroelectronics, and is in one of the latest 1.4 µm pixel generations. The device uses the ST5953 sensor (again, the subject of Chipworks Analysis). The 3 Mp sensor is also from STMicro, the 58548A. This is a pretty big design win for STMicro, since it also has won the image processor (on a separate chip). The STV0986 (package markings show an X) is touted as a 5 Mp mobile imaging processor that can support up to two mobile sensors.

The Wolfson WM8994 Audio CODEC for mobile devices, is a high volume device also notably found in the Samsung Wave. It provides premium audio capabilities in a small, low-power design and includes an integrated class D/AB speaker driver and class W headphone driver. The die size measures 5.42 x 4.03 mm.For those interested, we are offering a Circuit Analysis Report on two of the key blocks in addition to top metal and poly level die photos.

A summary of the other design wins in the Blackberry Playbook show that Texas Instruments is once again a big winner.

And a bonus, unknown part. We would love your input and will post the identity of the chip when we hear it (insidetechnology@chipworks.com) Editorial change (November 28, 2011) – It took a while to get an answer but, someone emailed in that this part is the Toshiba TC358765 MIPI DSI to LVDS bridge chip.  It includes a dual link LVDS transmitter, so it can support a WUXGA panel.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Computer / Tablet. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.