devauniversal
10-07-2007, 02:41 PM
http://www.tinypic.us/images/4693sshot-31.jpg
Special thanks to Olivia Marsh and Manveer Wasson for help with the disassembly and photographs for this article
And this is one of ours, on the operating table
http://www.tinypic.us/images/69808sshot-32.jpg
Chances for survival? Slim
The first step to disassemble the device is to remove the lower black plastic piece; heating it up and squeezing a razorblade in there made it not only possible, but easy:
http://www.tinypic.us/images/48965sshot-33.jpg
Then came the process of removing the brushed aluminum cover, which wasn't nearly as easy. After a lot of bending, pulling and other unfathomable things one would do to a brand new iPhone we were left with this
http://www.tinypic.us/images/42671sshot-34.jpg
Ignore the slightly bent iPhone casing, we swear it came this way
Page 2
The First Date
The lower part of the iPhone, covered in black, is where the GSM and WiFi antenna reside
http://www.tinypic.us/images/94188sshot-35.jpg
The yellow membrane above is common among GSM mobile phones.
The black circle at the lower left of this picture is the camera, and the two white cables are antenna interfaces to the motherboard:
http://www.tinypic.us/images/83100sshot-36.jpg
The PCB that the two white wires run to is actually the top layer of the iPhone's entire motherboard, it is incredibly compact. The rest of the phone is basically a battery and the GSM and USB interfaces
http://www.tinypic.us/images/59426sshot-37.jpg
The big yellow thing in the middle is the iPhone battery; you're definitely not replacing this thing on your own
Page 3
The iPhone's Motherboard(s)
The motherboard in the iPhone is very compact; it is actually composed of two separate PCBs that are sandwiched together
http://www.tinypic.us/images/35832sshot-38.jpg
The upper left hand corner of the picture is the PCB sandwich that makes the iPhone tick; the black slot you're seeing here is for the SIM card; the cable port on the lower left of the motherboard appears to be the LCD interface.
The topmost PCB appears to have the 802.11b/g wireless controller as well as most of the other microprocessors necessary for the cell phone aspects of the iPhone:
http://www.tinypic.us/images/48080sshot-39.jpg
Note that we've removed the EMI shield from the top of this PCB layer in order to show off the individual components
http://www.tinypic.us/images/66707sshot-41.jpg
The lower PCB layer features the 4GB MLC NAND Flash (made by Samsung), as well as the iPhone's main processor. Two of the chips on this board have Apple logos on them, the larger of the two appears to be the iPhone's ARM processor manufactured by Samsung.
We suspect that it may be Samsung's S3C6400 (http://www.samsung.com/products/semiconductor/MobileSoC/ApplicationProcessor/ARM11Series/S3C6400/S3C6400.htm) based on the ARM1176 core, however some readers have written us stating that it's more likely to be the S3C2460 (http://www.samsung.com/products/semiconductor/MobileSoC/ApplicationProcessor/ARM9Series/S3C2460/S3C2460.htm); judging by the model numbers on the chip itself, the ARM processor may be a part of a multi-chip package that includes 1Gbit of system memory, for running the iPhone's OS. The K4X1G153PC-XGC3 is a Samsung part number, indicating a 1Gbit memory device, but it is placed on the same package as the ARM processor itself.
http://www.tinypic.us/images/70463sshot-42.jpg
Page 4
Say Goodbye to the Screen
With the motherboard itself pulled apart and inventoried, we turned to the multi-touch screen:
http://www.tinypic.us/images/9828sshot-43.jpg
http://www.tinypic.us/images/10857sshot-44.jpg
http://www.tinypic.us/images/46243sshot-45.jpg
http://www.tinypic.us/images/18131sshot-46.jpg
Special thanks to Olivia Marsh and Manveer Wasson for help with the disassembly and photographs for this article
And this is one of ours, on the operating table
http://www.tinypic.us/images/69808sshot-32.jpg
Chances for survival? Slim
The first step to disassemble the device is to remove the lower black plastic piece; heating it up and squeezing a razorblade in there made it not only possible, but easy:
http://www.tinypic.us/images/48965sshot-33.jpg
Then came the process of removing the brushed aluminum cover, which wasn't nearly as easy. After a lot of bending, pulling and other unfathomable things one would do to a brand new iPhone we were left with this
http://www.tinypic.us/images/42671sshot-34.jpg
Ignore the slightly bent iPhone casing, we swear it came this way
Page 2
The First Date
The lower part of the iPhone, covered in black, is where the GSM and WiFi antenna reside
http://www.tinypic.us/images/94188sshot-35.jpg
The yellow membrane above is common among GSM mobile phones.
The black circle at the lower left of this picture is the camera, and the two white cables are antenna interfaces to the motherboard:
http://www.tinypic.us/images/83100sshot-36.jpg
The PCB that the two white wires run to is actually the top layer of the iPhone's entire motherboard, it is incredibly compact. The rest of the phone is basically a battery and the GSM and USB interfaces
http://www.tinypic.us/images/59426sshot-37.jpg
The big yellow thing in the middle is the iPhone battery; you're definitely not replacing this thing on your own
Page 3
The iPhone's Motherboard(s)
The motherboard in the iPhone is very compact; it is actually composed of two separate PCBs that are sandwiched together
http://www.tinypic.us/images/35832sshot-38.jpg
The upper left hand corner of the picture is the PCB sandwich that makes the iPhone tick; the black slot you're seeing here is for the SIM card; the cable port on the lower left of the motherboard appears to be the LCD interface.
The topmost PCB appears to have the 802.11b/g wireless controller as well as most of the other microprocessors necessary for the cell phone aspects of the iPhone:
http://www.tinypic.us/images/48080sshot-39.jpg
Note that we've removed the EMI shield from the top of this PCB layer in order to show off the individual components
http://www.tinypic.us/images/66707sshot-41.jpg
The lower PCB layer features the 4GB MLC NAND Flash (made by Samsung), as well as the iPhone's main processor. Two of the chips on this board have Apple logos on them, the larger of the two appears to be the iPhone's ARM processor manufactured by Samsung.
We suspect that it may be Samsung's S3C6400 (http://www.samsung.com/products/semiconductor/MobileSoC/ApplicationProcessor/ARM11Series/S3C6400/S3C6400.htm) based on the ARM1176 core, however some readers have written us stating that it's more likely to be the S3C2460 (http://www.samsung.com/products/semiconductor/MobileSoC/ApplicationProcessor/ARM9Series/S3C2460/S3C2460.htm); judging by the model numbers on the chip itself, the ARM processor may be a part of a multi-chip package that includes 1Gbit of system memory, for running the iPhone's OS. The K4X1G153PC-XGC3 is a Samsung part number, indicating a 1Gbit memory device, but it is placed on the same package as the ARM processor itself.
http://www.tinypic.us/images/70463sshot-42.jpg
Page 4
Say Goodbye to the Screen
With the motherboard itself pulled apart and inventoried, we turned to the multi-touch screen:
http://www.tinypic.us/images/9828sshot-43.jpg
http://www.tinypic.us/images/10857sshot-44.jpg
http://www.tinypic.us/images/46243sshot-45.jpg
http://www.tinypic.us/images/18131sshot-46.jpg