Oh the humanity, iPad dissection! (UPDATED: Podcast)
RapidRepair.com dissects the iPad, exposing the secrets that lie within. Click to enlarge the image (photo credit RapidRepair.com)
Yup, our curious friends at RapidRepair are at it again, this time with a step-by step dis-assembly of the iPad.
Click on the "Read the rest of this entry" link below for more.
RapidRepair is taking very high resolution photos of the components, which will allow for a very detailed analysis of what makes the device tick.
The iPad's A4 System on a Chip (SoC) exposed.
What I find immediately interesting about this dis-assembly by RapidRepair's Aaron Vronko (who I spoke with in a podcast, see above) is the sheer amount of space remaining in the casing that is showing under the LCD IPS display adjacent to the main logic board, which clearly indicates a lot of room for component expansion in future models with the same form factor. The actual main board appears to be very small.
The iPad main logic board. Click on the photo to enlarge.
Many components on the logic board appear to be similar to those used in the iPod Touch and the iPhone 3GS, with the same vendors used and even similar part numbers/generations for the integrated circuits used in previous products.
Complete field strip of the Generation 1 iPad. Click on the photo to enlarge.
According to Vronko, the main logic board appears to have a large number of Samsung-manufactured components, including the main memory which totals 256MB, the same amount as the iPhone 3GS. In comparison, the latest generation of smartphones, such as the Motorola DROID and the Google Nexus One come with 512MB of main memory.
[UPDATE 4/4: Vronko's observation about main memory in the iPad appears to be valid, as ifixit.com has apparently performed an X-Ray analysis of the A4 SoC to reveal two 1 Gb SDRAM chips, for 256 MB RAM or 2 dies * 1024 Megabits each / 8 bytes per bit = 256 MB]
[UPDATE 4/3: We've included a podcast interview with Aaron Vronko, the disassembler.]