Thursday, March 15, 2012
Qualcomm, Broadcom, Skyworks Prominent In iPad 3 Teardown
Who says that Southern California companies aren't at the core of the technology business? A new teardown of the Apple iPad 3, just posted by iFixit, shows that at least three semiconductor companies with Southern California connections are doing the heavy electronics lifting inside Apple's new device. San Diego-based Qualcomm, Irvine-based Broadcom and Skyworks Solutions, with operations in both Irvine and Newbury Park, have major chips in the new Apple iPad 2, based on the information uncovered in the iFixit teardown. The teardown identifies at least three Broadcom chips, three Qualcomm ICs, and a front end module from Skyworks as major parts of the iPad 2, managing pretty much every aspect of the device's operations, from Bluetooth and Wi-Fi functionality, to power management, and 4G LTE wireless capability.
The teardown identified the Broadcom BCM4330 802.11a/b/g/n MAC/baseband/radio with integrated Bluetooth 4.0+HS and FM transceiver, Broadcom BCM5973 I/O controller, Broadcom BCM5974 microprocessor, Qualcomm PM8028 Power Management IC, Qualcomm RTR8600 multi-band/mode RF transceiver for 3G and 4GLTE bands, Qualcomm MDM9600 - 3G and 4G wireless modem, and the Skyworks SKY77468-17 front-end module as all major parts of the hot Apple device. iFixit, which is based in San Luis Obispo, is known for their frequent "teardowns" of electronic equipment, dissecting them to determine what kinds of chips and components manufacturers are using.