Teardown of New iPad Reveals Samsung Retina Display, Qualcomm MDM9600 Wireless Chip

[darkslide29]

Alright, iFixit made a teardown and concluded iPad's display is most probably made by Samsung.

My question is: what does it really mean?

Is it developed by Samsung? If yes, why isn't it used in any Samsung products? Is it developed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung? Is it developed by third company and manufactured by Samsung?

Who has the licence for this display? Is there even such thing as a licence for a display? Can any company ask Samsung to supply them with these displays?

Confusion.

This isn't the first product that uses Samsung parts. iPhones before it, the last iPad, too.

 

[Randomoneh]

If it was developed by Apple it would have been mentioned in the keynote.

And if it was developed by Samsung, they would have used it for their products before letting Apple use it. Right?

 

[Menel]

Looks like iFixit took the heat spreader off:

Image

If you compare the A5X size to one of the other ICs on the board (choose one that has a similar height/width vs. the iPad 2), it looks like the A5X is a bit smaller than the A5. If the RAM is on-die, it would appear to be 32nm; if the RAM has been moved off-die it's hard to tell...

The CPU die is not visible there yet. Don't start trying to deduce anything quite yet.

 

[frick]

The CPU die is not visible there yet. Don't start trying to deduce anything quite yet.

Just a rough estimate based on the A5X's package size...

 

[Vanton]

And if it was developed by Samsung, they would have used it for their products before letting Apple use it. Right?

I think Samsung was rumored to come out with a tab with higher resolution but I'm not sure.

Chances of the display being designed by Samsung - likely but yet unknown
Chances that Apple designed it - pretty much nil.

 

[lilsoccakid74]

Are the commentaries by iFixit really necessary?

Examples: "Connectors and screws, connectors and screws, to secure a logic board, that's what you use!"
"Ha! Sneaky, sneaky, iPad. Let go of your logic board."

How about just sticking to writing the teardown without the extra garbage, half of the damn teardown is the above quotes.

This is you, on the internet.

 

[ct2k7]

They're using Toshiba chips instead of Samsung for data storage.

I remember someone saying a while ago that Samsung storage chips seem to offer better performance and reliability, anyone know about this?

 

[DELTAsnake]

Nice of iFixit to show that Apple's little disclaimer in there teardown.

The iPad 4G doesn't work with any 4G providers here in Australia yet Apple are still marketing it as 4G here . I smell a lawsuit.

 

[aerok]

They're using Toshiba chips instead of Samsung for data storage.

I remember someone saying a while ago that Samsung storage chips seem to offer better performance and reliability, anyone know about this?

Same, I heard Samsung is best for reliability but I also never had issues with Toshiba units in the past (Other devices) so I wouldn't worry.

 

[DELTAsnake]

They're using Toshiba chips instead of Samsung for data storage.

I remember someone saying a while ago that Samsung storage chips seem to offer better performance and reliability, anyone know about this?

Apple has been using Toshiba Nand Flash in there devices for a while now. They might have even been using them from the beginning (I just can't recall any teardowns of the first iPhone's and iPod's).

EDIT: Just looked through iFixit's teardowns for the iPhone 1st gen and 3G, Apple used Samsung Nand for the 1st gen and started using Toshiba on the 3G.

They did use some Samsung SSD's in the MBA's but most of them shipped with Toshiba SSD's also.

 

[Daws001]

Are the commentaries by iFixit really necessary?

Examples: "Connectors and screws, connectors and screws, to secure a logic board, that's what you use!"
"Ha! Sneaky, sneaky, iPad. Let go of your logic board."

How about just sticking to writing the teardown without the extra garbage, half of the damn teardown is the above quotes.

What's wrong with you?! Those are adorable comments! I'm imagining little Australian elves going to work on it, happily singing with dingos and wallabies nearby.

 

[fertilized-egg]

And if it was developed by Samsung, they would have used it for their products before letting Apple use it. Right?

No. Samsung's display division is a separate division that takes orders from others and also develop technology based on clients' requests. Samsung's tablet team still has to pay the price for the displays and if they cannot develop a tablet in sufficient quantity, they cannot go for the high end components because it'll drive up the cost too much.

Look at LG. They have been producing the Retina display for iPhones for years now but the LG phones until recently didn't have the same high DPI display because their mobile division didn't request it.

It's easy to think big chaebols like Samsung and LG are one single entity working as a very tightly integrated team, but that's not always the case. Plus Samsung's LCD division has been struggling recently. A big client like Apple is a can't-miss prospect for them.

 

[Lesser Evets]

What I find truly amazing is that the computer is that small strip of hardware with a few chips and resistors. When you think of how this computer's specs outstrip the revolutionary iBook of 1999 in all ways, and you see the motherboard of the old iBook, it's insanely incredible.

What I find even more amazing is by 2022 that strip of hardware which is the iPad will probably fit inside what is currently housing an iPod Nano and will probably be about 5x more powerful.

 

[radiohead14]

They're using Toshiba chips instead of Samsung for data storage.

I remember someone saying a while ago that Samsung storage chips seem to offer better performance and reliability, anyone know about this?

as far as MBA's IIRC from Anandtech's review, Samsung did offer better performance

 

[thundersteele]

On the iFixit teardown I didn't find any clear statement about the size of the new battery, compared to the old one. It has 70% more capacity, and now macrumors claims that it is "about 70% larger", but that's not clear.

The battery area is about the same, so it should be easy to compare the thickness, and of course also the weight of the batteries. It would be interesting to know whether the capacity just scaled with the size, or whether there is some progress in the technology, i.e. maybe the battery is only 50% larger but increased 70% in capacity.

 

[Buildbright]

A Nand Ffash memory upgrade is something I am waiting for in newer devices. I think the HTC Titan has the fastest flash memory in a mobile device. Its double of that in the ipad and iphone. I would love to have Sata III SSD speeds with a highspeed thunderbolt interface.

 

[deconstruct60]

Not seeing the Qualcomm MDM9600 that Anandtech said would be in there. I see the Qualcomm RTR8600 multi-band/mode RF transceiver for LTE bands.

The RTR8600 is the mostly analog part of the radio system. The digital "brains" is the matching 9600 shown in step 19 of ifixit's tear down. The two paired deliver the solution

Anantech's story was about how the iPhone would not use the MDM9600 because it lacked the voice components that the MDM9615 would need. The iPad is not a phone. All it needs is a data modem; no legacy voice infrastructure.

For example, a Verizon 4G LTE hotspot device.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4289/verizon-4g-lte-two-datacards-wifi-hotspot-massively-reviewed/9

Same MDM9600 + RTR8600 pair.

As another poster mentioned, it is doubtful that even if there are MDM9615 coming off the fab lines now that they being generated anywhere near the volumes needed for the iPad. Nevermind the volumes that the iPhone + iPad ( + Motorola phones + HTC phones + ...... phones ) will generate in the Fall. iPhone production will probably begin well in advance of the release.


The iPad (2013 edition) will probably pick up the MDM9615 when its production is stable and at full volumes. [ just so that Apple goes back to buying a limited subset of parts across products. ]

With external RAM memory it appears the iPhone probably won't be getting the A5X. This could be an interesting split in using the same "Apple Ax package" parts in both iPad and iPhone. Having to deal with a dramatically larger pixel count causing a fork.

 

[wizard]

This is distressing and pathetic.

Remember kids. You too could be a terrorist by reading these nerds hobby.

I'd like too think that if we could get rid of this current administration, via the next election, all of this nonsense would go away. Sadly the people that speak up the most about seem to be the ones the most marginalized in the media. Pretty solid evidence that the media is heavily oriented to the left. The reality is this crap does nothing to stop terrorism, it only succeeds in creating a climate of repression.

For somebody like me that grew up at the dawn of the computer revolution it is very upsetting. Much of what I know about hardware came from tearing things apart often to try to make new things out of them. It wasn't just electronics either as we tore apart just about anything that our imaginations could see as something different. I even made a windmill out of old bicycle parts, stove pipe and some old hardwood flooring. As a kid experimenting with the chemistry set, government surplus electronics, lawn mowers and what have you gave me the background to be very successful as an automation technician.

Sadly these days you have a hard time even finding a young person that knows how to use a wrench solder to a PC board or chuck a part in a lathe. Then people wonder why so much of our manufacturing has left the USA. Pretty sad that the government wants to stigmatize those that have a curiosity and sense of adventure when it comes to the world around them.

 

[BillG53]

Sadly these days you have a hard time even finding a young person that knows how to use a wrench solder to a PC board or chuck a part in a lathe. Then people wonder why so much of our manufacturing has left the USA. Pretty sad that the government wants to stigmatize those that have a curiosity and sense of adventure when it comes to the world around them.

Well said. It seems the left is opposed to anything creative on the individual level. We must all be taught in the public schools to be mind-numbed robots and toe the party line... their party. It seems there is little tolerance for anyone who aspires to greatness by learning to do something for themselves.

 

[wizard]

Amazing is right!

For many of us that started out with VIC20's, S100 computers, HeathKits and then Mac Plus's even the iPad 1 is amazing. Understand this; for a 51 year old guy the iPhone or iPad are many times more powerful than probably 70% of the computers we have ever owned.

By the time I graduated in 1978 the school had exactly one computer in use by the teaching staff. Sadly it was some sort of HP desktop unit and not exactly a personal computer. If you have been around for a little while the change is dramatic. I can still remember getting punch cards donated to me to play with as a kid.

By 2022 we ought to have systems a lot like was seen in the movie Avatar. In fact iPad brings us very close today even if much software development is needed. The biggest problem right now with iPad is that it doesn't talk well to ones local network. By that I mean syncing and iCloud like behavior needs to happen as easily with your desktop but without that travel to Apples iCloud servers.

What I find truly amazing is that the computer is that small strip of hardware with a few chips and resistors. When you think of how this computer's specs outstrip the revolutionary iBook of 1999 in all ways, and you see the motherboard of the old iBook, it's insanely incredible.

What I find even more amazing is by 2022 that strip of hardware which is the iPad will probably fit inside what is currently housing an iPod Nano and will probably be about 5x more powerful.

----------

They're using Toshiba chips instead of Samsung for data storage.

I remember someone saying a while ago that Samsung storage chips seem to offer better performance and reliability, anyone know about this?

Things change rapidly in the flash market. Besides SSDs are made up of more than just flash, the controllers have a huge impact on performance and reliability. Companies like Micron sell different grades of flash chips for different usages. So you have to be real careful that any comparisons are well Apples to Apples.

 

[jamesnajera]

And if it was developed by Samsung, they would have used it for their products before letting Apple use it. Right?

I am pretty sure the technology behind this Retina display is a cooperative effort between Apple and Sharp. Unfortunately when it came time to mass production, Sharp could not meet the yield requirements, and meet Quality Control standards. Apple is using Samsung for fabrication, and Sharp & LG will soon start making the screens too.

Same goes with the A5X, Apple Engineers design it, Samsung fabricates it.

Since Samsung is fabricating a lot of parts for Apple, this is were things get in sticky. Samsung learns from Apples Designs, and then copies those for their products. Apple gets pissed, because they spent all the money on R&D, and thats why we have court cases.

 

[Man9z0r]

Wow did they really go all the way to Australia just to be the first ones to tear down the new iPad??? smh

I assume that you have never heard of iFixit? Their whole clame to fame was being the first company/group to open up and see what is inside different technology and figure out ways to replace/fix it.

Now they couldn't nearly be first if they waited until they could get it at launch from the west coast where they are located.

 

[SBlue1]

poor ipad...

 

[Vanton]

I am pretty sure the technology behind this Retina display is a cooperative effort between Apple and Sharp.

Where did you get this info, any links?

I'm fairly certain that if Apple had any part in designing it they would have mentioned it in the keynote as they always do about the A5 processor. Even if it was a collaboration with Sharp the keynote would have said something like "this new Retina Display that we helped design is a breakthrough".

 

[notabadname]

I think you just voided your Apple Care agreement.