iPhone 3GS dissected: what’s inside?
June 19, 2009 by dennis
So you just got your new shiny iPhone 3GS, what do you do next? Dissect it and check out the insides, of course! At least if you’re working for a company that’s called Rapid Repair and have to repair cell phones for a living.
The folks from Rapid Repair got their hands on an iPhone 3GS and in a matter of a few hours they’ve disassembled it and checked which parts it contains (and more importantly for stock markets: who manufactures them). All it took to complete the job was Small Phillips Screw Driver, Small Flathead, heat gun, exacto razor & Safe Open Tool, and some patience.
The results of disassembly could be called surprising by some. Why? Read on.
The biggest surprise is the manufacturer of the CPU. While Apple said that the iPhone 3GS features a faster CPU than its predecessors, so far it was anyone’s guess who manufactures it. In fact, some industry analysts thought that since Apple acquired a processors manufacturing firm P.A. Semi last year it will use its own chips, while others pointed to the Intel Atom or Intel Silverthorne chipsets.
However, Apple decided to go with the recently released Samsung S5PC100 as the main chipset of the iPhone 3GS (powered by a Samsung processor, of course), which as far as this writer knows was never a suspect and runs at a respectable 667/833 MhZ.
The second surprise is the ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz, PowerVR SGX graphics that the iPhone 3GS uses as its main graphics processing unit (GPU)… It actually features support for 720p HD video, although this was never stated anywhere by Apple (nor is it supported in the current firmware 3.0 revision, it seems)
There’s 256MB of RAM onboard. And below you can see the actual component part numbers:
CPU – Samsung
339S0073ARM
K2132C2P0-50-F
0N1480911
APL0298
N1TVY0Q 0919
NAND Flash Memory – Toshiba TH58NVG702ELA89
IA8816
TAIWAN
09209AE
System Memory – 337S3754
CMA
G0919
5Y9307885E4
Infineon – 36MY1EE
A9177314
Z171033B
Battery
APN: 616-0434
VPN: APPLE-08-003-01(GG)
Li-ion Polymer Battery: 3.7V 4.51Whr
And how well does the iPhone 3GS compare to the recently released Palm Pre? Below is a side-by-side comparison, but let’s just say that someone got their collective ass whooped.
Tags: app, Apple, Flash, iPhone, iPhone 3GS, News, OS
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- iPhones NAND flash memory experiencing shortages
- Flash Memory Lawsuits Filed Against Apple
iPhone 3GS dissected: what’s inside?
Article by dennis
Dennis Sloutsky is one of the oldest members of iPhoneWorld.ca, having co-started the site in January 2007. He stills owns an iPhone 2G and uses it sometimes just for fun. His hobbies include traveling, writing and playing his guitar.
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