News & Analysis
Teardown: Inside RIM Blackberry Playbook LTE
Allan Yogasingam
8/10/2012 5:38 PM EDT
Playbook LTE reveals Qualcomm's continued momentum, partnership with TI
Once the Playbook LTE was torn down, it became apparent that RIM chose to stick with many of the semiconductor partners they chose to design with in the first Playbook. Maintaining some key socket wins in the new Playbook was Texas Instruments. The Playbook LTE features TI's OMAP 4460, a slight upgrade on the OMAP 4430 found within the original Playbook. The key differences between the two processors are that the OMAP 4460 has an increased clock speed of 1.5 GHz versus 1.0 GHz for the 4430 and better 3-D video performance. Like its predecessor, the OMAP 4460 is a dual-core processor built on ARM Cortex-A9 cores manufactured at the 45-nm node. This selection was somewhat disappointing as there was some hope that RIM would chose a processor from the quad-core OMAP 5 platform, making it more in line with recent tablet offerings like the ASUS Transformer Prime, the Apple iPad 3 (at the graphics level) and the recent Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.
Die marking of the OMAP 4460 (click on image to enlarge).
Die photo of the OMAP 4460 (click on image to enlarge).
Other key design wins for Texas Instruments include the reappearance of the WL1283C, the WiLink 7.0 single-chip WLAN, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 and FM solution that we first found in the original Playbook, the TWL6030 power management IC (also in the original Playbook), the TPS63021 buck-boost converter and various other power management related ICs.
As RIM made the move to a data-ready tablet, some had wondered if Texas Instruments would achieve a socket win for one of their baseband components and the related ICs to go with it. Surprisingly, it was Qualcomm who provided the LTE chipsets for the new Playbook, providing the same combination of ICs we’ve seen in other LTE-based handsets. The MDM9200 from Qualcomm is the GSM/W-CDMA/LTE baseband processor. This processor works in conjunction with the RTR6800 transceiver and the PM8028 power management IC (both these ICs were recently seen in the iPhone 4S and the iPad 3).
Next: Other key components
Once the Playbook LTE was torn down, it became apparent that RIM chose to stick with many of the semiconductor partners they chose to design with in the first Playbook. Maintaining some key socket wins in the new Playbook was Texas Instruments. The Playbook LTE features TI's OMAP 4460, a slight upgrade on the OMAP 4430 found within the original Playbook. The key differences between the two processors are that the OMAP 4460 has an increased clock speed of 1.5 GHz versus 1.0 GHz for the 4430 and better 3-D video performance. Like its predecessor, the OMAP 4460 is a dual-core processor built on ARM Cortex-A9 cores manufactured at the 45-nm node. This selection was somewhat disappointing as there was some hope that RIM would chose a processor from the quad-core OMAP 5 platform, making it more in line with recent tablet offerings like the ASUS Transformer Prime, the Apple iPad 3 (at the graphics level) and the recent Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.
Die marking of the OMAP 4460 (click on image to enlarge).
Die photo of the OMAP 4460 (click on image to enlarge).
Other key design wins for Texas Instruments include the reappearance of the WL1283C, the WiLink 7.0 single-chip WLAN, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 and FM solution that we first found in the original Playbook, the TWL6030 power management IC (also in the original Playbook), the TPS63021 buck-boost converter and various other power management related ICs.
As RIM made the move to a data-ready tablet, some had wondered if Texas Instruments would achieve a socket win for one of their baseband components and the related ICs to go with it. Surprisingly, it was Qualcomm who provided the LTE chipsets for the new Playbook, providing the same combination of ICs we’ve seen in other LTE-based handsets. The MDM9200 from Qualcomm is the GSM/W-CDMA/LTE baseband processor. This processor works in conjunction with the RTR6800 transceiver and the PM8028 power management IC (both these ICs were recently seen in the iPhone 4S and the iPad 3).
Next: Other key components
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hm
8/10/2012 8:01 PM EDT
Good effort and good work. Can it be made little more concise? More people will read if it is made that way.
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SIR
8/17/2012 6:07 PM EDT
I think the article was concise and well-eritten and would have suffered if abbreviated.
Re the negative tone on the first few paragraphs, how does a responsible journalist deny a product's history?
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Sanjib.Acharya
8/20/2012 2:34 AM EDT
The article is very well written as the most useful information such as bill of material of the cards inside, are presented in the first couple of pages.
The improvement I would suggest would be to incorporate a better way of browsing to a particular page...it is difficult to browse back to page number one again from 20. :)
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slc2173
8/11/2012 1:16 AM EDT
Writers need to cool it with the RIM negativity. My friends, who all own ipads, think playbook is an excellent product and would probably buy one instead of a new ipad. If you guys would let people think for themselves instead of spewing bad stuff about RIM products, then maybe sales would take off.
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eewiz
8/11/2012 8:37 AM EDT
I have tried Playbook several times. In itself Playbook is a decent product. However the ecosystem ( apps +developers+ content) lacks big time. Hence I dont have much hope for this.
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melgross
8/11/2012 9:01 AM EDT
Please, don't make things up. Surveys of iPad owners (I'm one) have shown that 90% wouldn't buy another product. Certainly not a Playbook. If anyone would buy something else, it would be anything other than a Playbook.
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ReneCardenas
8/13/2012 11:42 AM EDT
Melgross, but the world does not revolve around Apple products my friend, now a days there are many options! and to assume that only the Apple cult followers are the only valid population to follow is to be deluicional.
I won't drink that cool aid, I am happy with my choices. But i won't claim that are the only valid ones ;-) so chillax and let other people live with their free will.
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Patk0317
8/11/2012 2:57 PM EDT
I think RIM is about to go the way of Palm Pilot. Blackberry was once on top and is still a good product, but eclipsed by Apple and Samsung.
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agk
8/13/2012 7:30 AM EDT
On the communication board there are 4 parts with white dos. I think they are ferrite core transformers.They add weight to the product and also bulky.
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ughhhh
8/13/2012 1:27 PM EDT
Yeah, but ferrites are very useful when making efficient voltage converters. Or do you have a better solution?
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Sheetal.Pandey
8/19/2012 8:48 AM EDT
Its a tough market. APple and Samsung already in fight where is the space for RIM unless they get more user frendliness approach in their products.I have Motorola's droid razor and I love it.
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