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Samsung's Galaxy S smartphone: What's under the AMOLED?
Allan Yogasingam
8/14/2010 7:24 PM EDT
Galaxy blown apart
Once we were able to take apart the Galaxy S in our labs, we began to identify and dissect the components that make up the smartphone.
The primary “brain” of the GT-I9000 was found within a multistack package on the main board. The part, labeled KB100D00WM-A453, was a two-package stack. One package in the stack consisted of four memory dice, all designed by Samsung, as indicated by the markings on them. One die was the Samsung KFG8GH6Q4M (8 Gb of OneNand); two others were the K4X2G323PB (2 Gb of DDR SDRAM) and K4X1G323B (1 Gb of DDR SDRAM). Another 1-Gb die requires more testing to confirm which Samsung device it is.
The other package contained the Samsung 1-GHz Hummingbird processor, with its recognizable S5PC110A01 markings. The Hummingbird processor has become infamous for sharing the same ARM A8 Cortex core as that of the iPhone 4's A4 processor, a fact that was discovered at UBM TechInsights.
According to Young Choi, TechInsights' senior analyst, the further use of the Hummingbird processor in both the Samsung Wave and the Galaxy S smartphone reaffirms Samsung's commitment to remain the No. 1 manufacturer in the application processor market, a position it usurped from Texas Instruments in 2009. The Hummingbird, in combination with the OneNAND package (called Flex OneNAND) and the low-power DDR SDRAMs in the multistack, affords Samsung the flexibility of data storage space and code storage space for the operation of the Galaxy S.
The similarities with the iPhone 4 don't end with the similar ARM cores in the phones' processors. Both the iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9000 feature design wins for companies manufacturing similar parts for both devices. Infineon again finds itself a winner, as its baseband processor and transceiver were designed into this Galaxy S. Much like the Apple iPhone 4, the GT-I9000 uses an Infineon X-GOLD 61x baseband processor; however it uses a different solution for the transceiver (though also an Infineon product), with the PMB 5703 SMARTi UE for the EDGE/UMTS capability.
Triquint continues to gain design wins in the smartphone landscape, with four of its devices being found within the GT-I9000. The TQM676021 and the TQM666022 are integrated linear power amplifier, duplexer and transmit all-in-one modules for operation on Band 1 and 2 UMTS. The TQM626028L is the power amplifier duplexer module for WCDMA/HSUPA Band VIII. Finally, the Triquint TQM6M9014 is a highly integrated GMSK/8PSK WEDGE transmit module.
In terms of other major design wins, Broadcom continues to impress by winning sockets, with the BCM4329 802.11n with Bluetooth 2.1 and FM receiver. This is the fourth major product in which we've seen this particular Broadcom product, with the Galaxy S joining the Samsung Wave, the iPhone 4 and the iPad. Broadcom also scored another design win for its GPS solutions, with the BCM4751 GPS receiver getting chosen for this handset (much as the BCM4750 was chosen for the iPad and iPhone 4).
For more of the other parts within the GT-I9000 and more images of the devices within the phone, please visit UBM TechInsights' Galaxy S web page.
Next: Bite out of Apple?
Once we were able to take apart the Galaxy S in our labs, we began to identify and dissect the components that make up the smartphone.
The primary “brain” of the GT-I9000 was found within a multistack package on the main board. The part, labeled KB100D00WM-A453, was a two-package stack. One package in the stack consisted of four memory dice, all designed by Samsung, as indicated by the markings on them. One die was the Samsung KFG8GH6Q4M (8 Gb of OneNand); two others were the K4X2G323PB (2 Gb of DDR SDRAM) and K4X1G323B (1 Gb of DDR SDRAM). Another 1-Gb die requires more testing to confirm which Samsung device it is.
The other package contained the Samsung 1-GHz Hummingbird processor, with its recognizable S5PC110A01 markings. The Hummingbird processor has become infamous for sharing the same ARM A8 Cortex core as that of the iPhone 4's A4 processor, a fact that was discovered at UBM TechInsights.
According to Young Choi, TechInsights' senior analyst, the further use of the Hummingbird processor in both the Samsung Wave and the Galaxy S smartphone reaffirms Samsung's commitment to remain the No. 1 manufacturer in the application processor market, a position it usurped from Texas Instruments in 2009. The Hummingbird, in combination with the OneNAND package (called Flex OneNAND) and the low-power DDR SDRAMs in the multistack, affords Samsung the flexibility of data storage space and code storage space for the operation of the Galaxy S.
The similarities with the iPhone 4 don't end with the similar ARM cores in the phones' processors. Both the iPhone 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9000 feature design wins for companies manufacturing similar parts for both devices. Infineon again finds itself a winner, as its baseband processor and transceiver were designed into this Galaxy S. Much like the Apple iPhone 4, the GT-I9000 uses an Infineon X-GOLD 61x baseband processor; however it uses a different solution for the transceiver (though also an Infineon product), with the PMB 5703 SMARTi UE for the EDGE/UMTS capability.
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| The difference between a traditional touchscreen and the Super AMOLED screen manufactured by Samsung. |
In terms of other major design wins, Broadcom continues to impress by winning sockets, with the BCM4329 802.11n with Bluetooth 2.1 and FM receiver. This is the fourth major product in which we've seen this particular Broadcom product, with the Galaxy S joining the Samsung Wave, the iPhone 4 and the iPad. Broadcom also scored another design win for its GPS solutions, with the BCM4751 GPS receiver getting chosen for this handset (much as the BCM4750 was chosen for the iPad and iPhone 4).
For more of the other parts within the GT-I9000 and more images of the devices within the phone, please visit UBM TechInsights' Galaxy S web page.
Next: Bite out of Apple?
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