HP TouchPad: Teardown
The tablet that won't stay dead returns. If you want to know what's inside, here's an autopsy--that is, a teardown--right down to the guts of the HP TouchPad.
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When HP killed its new HP TouchPad on August 17, less than two months after launch, BYTE was surprised. You'd think HP would've ridden it through the holidays. But the clunky tablet just wasn't selling and HP wanted out of the consumer biz, execs said.
Then HP threw us for a loop. It and its countless retailers and online stores started selling the $400 plus tablet at fire sale prices starting at $99. And it sold like crazy. Digitimes reports HP sold out of its 800,000 to 1 million devices in the channel.
But wait, there's more--literally. The same sources at Digitimes, in Taiwan, say HP is planning to use up remaining components and build between 100,000 and 200,000 more TouchPads. For a dead product, the HP TouchPad is getting quite the install base. HP should rename it The Zombie.
If you're curious about what's inside, don't pry your TouchPad open. Soon it'll be dead for real. Instead, let BYTE and our colleagues at UBM TechInsights wield the scalpel for you. Here we go.
When released on July 1, the HP Touchpad was one of the first tablets to use the dual-core Qualcomm APQ8060 processor. From the third generation of Snapdragon processors, the CPU runs at 1.2GHz with Qualcomm's Adreno 220 GPU core technology.
Here you can see the die. Pun not intended.
With the enclosure open, you see the display on top and the main board and battery on the bottom. Everything is a tight fit. Not much room for error inside this one.
A closer look at the HP Touchpad display, which sports a Samsung LCD module, part number LT097XL01.
The main operations on the TouchPad occur across three circuit boards. The main board holds the processor and memory. The two smaller boards control the I/O and the touchscreen. Note the speaker placement, connectors, headphone jack, SD card assembly, Wi-fi antenna, and of course, a long-life 3.7V lithium polymer battery pack.
Remove the main boards and you can see how the design allows for all the necessary components to fit into such a small area. Qualcomm takes position on the main board with its APQ8060 along with power-management integrated circuits. Qualcomm's recently acquired Atheros, which makes the wireless Atheros6003X circuitry, also makes an appearance.
Much of the power management and MOSFET integrated circuits inside the HP Touchpad are from Texas Instruments. InvenSense, a firm that reportedly has a lot of extra components left for manufacturing more HP TouchPads, provides the MPU-3050 digital gyroscope. The MPU-3050 is also inside RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook.
A closer look at the main board components, removed from the Touchpad. Below we'll take a more detailed look at the high points.
On the L-shaped backboard, we found a TI TPS99003B5A power management unit, a Qualcomm PM8901 power management unit, a TI TPS61187 DC-DC converter, and a TI TPS61032 DC-DC step-up regulator.
On the main front board, we found a CSR single-chip Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, along with Qualcomm's AR6003 single-chip 802.11b/g/n Wi-fi circuitry. Also present is 1Gb of Samsung mobile DDR2 SDRAM, a Wolfson audio hub, the Qualcomm dual-core applications processor, a SanDisk NAND Flash memory, an STMicro 3-axis accelerometer and compass and an InvenSense 3-axis gyro with processing. Had HP not killed the TouchPad, it would've been a big win for Qualcomm. The system even includes Qualcomm's power management circuits.
On the touchscreen board we find the Cypress semiconductor touchscreen slave controller and the touchscreen master control. If you've ever wondered what makes your devices respond to touch, here is one way it works.
On the touchscreen board we find the Cypress semiconductor touchscreen slave controller and the touchscreen master control. If you've ever wondered what makes your devices respond to touch, here is one way it works.
When HP killed its new HP TouchPad on August 17, less than two months after launch, BYTE was surprised. You'd think HP would've ridden it through the holidays. But the clunky tablet just wasn't selling and HP wanted out of the consumer biz, execs said.
Then HP threw us for a loop. It and its countless retailers and online stores started selling the $400 plus tablet at fire sale prices starting at $99. And it sold like crazy. Digitimes reports HP sold out of its 800,000 to 1 million devices in the channel.
But wait, there's more--literally. The same sources at Digitimes, in Taiwan, say HP is planning to use up remaining components and build between 100,000 and 200,000 more TouchPads. For a dead product, the HP TouchPad is getting quite the install base. HP should rename it The Zombie.
If you're curious about what's inside, don't pry your TouchPad open. Soon it'll be dead for real. Instead, let BYTE and our colleagues at UBM TechInsights wield the scalpel for you. Here we go.
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