Saturday, May 1, 2010

Bookending the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G unboxing from earlier today is the other classic staple of geekdom: the tear-down. As usual iFixit did the deed, and here’s what they uncovered:
  • There are actually FIVE antennas in this iPad. Two antennas handle the cell reception — one is in the RF window on top, the other attaches to the LCD frame. A single GPS antenna is also housed in the RF window on top. Just like the iPad Wi-Fi, there are two antennas that handle Wi-Fi / Bluetooth connectivity, one in the Apple logo and another to the left of the dock connector.

  • Apple looks to be using the entire LCD frame as an antenna!

  • Apple uses the same 3G baseband processor in both the iPhone 3GS and the iPad 3G.

  • The baseband processor in question is the Infineon 337S3754 PMB 8878 X-Gold IC. It was actually white-labeled on the production unit, but with enough sleuthing we were able to confirm its true identity.

  • The iPad 3G has a Broadcom BCM4750UBG Single-Chip AGPS Solution, whereas the iPhone 3GS uses an Infineon Hammerhead II package. Big win for Broadcom!

Head on over if you want to see the whole, sordid strip-down…

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