Chipworks

We couldn’t resist the obvious metaphor (and one that has been repeated so many times already), but the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone featuring Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich operating system has hit the market. For consumers, this means they get a great phone that is rich on features, manufactured by a leading electronics company, and have bragging rights of being among the first to use a new operating system.

Sure the chocolate cookie on the outside is great, but for reverse engineers like us, tech teams seeking competitive intelligence, and IP teams looking for patent hits on high volume products, the tasty part is the frozen cream on the inside.

And this phone has some very tasty insides – among them a brand new TI OMAP processor.

Over on the right, you can click to zoom on the images. The major silicon identified here includes:

While Atmel is still the clear leader in this market, we have been seeing more and more design wins going to other companies.  In this case we have the MELFAS 8PK173. The die markings also appeared earlier this year in the Samsung Conquer (with different package markings). Competition is good.

Intel has two interesting wins with the Intel 9611 and 5712. Why is this interesting? Well, it is the first time we have seen the Infineon PMB9811 and PMB5712 parts rebranded with Intel markings.

No offense to the rest of the design wins inside this phone, but when something new is found in the core of the phone, it is worth sinking our teeth into. This processor is a TI design, fabricated by one of its foundry partners, and features a 1.5 GhZ dual core ARM-based processor. TI is an acknowledged leader in delivering mobile processes with excellent power management, and with this device, you can expect to get great performance and a long battery life.

TI has a couple other sockets not already mentioned, including the TI TPB62631 DC-DC converter and the TWL6030B1AD power management IC. Texas Instruments continues to strike it big in these latest hot phones.

Samsung shows off its vertical integration here by using one of its own sensors in the primary camera. In this case, the S5K4E5YA 5 Mp, 1.4 µm pixel pitch back illuminated CMOS image sensor.

On the back of the camera module (at right), we see a Winbond W25Q80BWIG, which is, according to Winbond’s website, an 8 Mb serial flash.

Google wallet is touted as the next big thing. And lets face it, mobile payments in the phone have been an idea long overdue for success in North America. Powering this technology in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is one of the most advanced NFC chips on the market – the NXP PN544 near field controller.

There are two dies in this chip. Since we have completed an analog circuit analysis on the NFC chip, it gave us the opportunity to include an annotated die photo at the right. Also, see the top metal of the controller chip. The antenna for this device is found under the cover of the battery – an unusual move; battery replacement is easy, but you have to get the right battery or you lose NFC!