Apple's new iPhone 5 performance running scores have been released, and the Android platform. What configuration is the Apple A6 processor equipped with IPHONE 5? IPHONE 5 A6 chip is a mysterious! In the pre-sale period of iPhone5, the industry began to guess the specifications of this A6 chip and various tests. Finally, all this is to draw a journal, because the professional dismantling team iFixit has joined hands with Chipworks, bringing us detailed dismantling of A6 chips, let's take a look.
Here, I will give readers to the readers, "Take a vaccination", and ifixit also means that there will be very many technical terms in this dismantling process, which is more difficult to understand.
first step:
IFIXIT first introduces us the equipment provided in this dismantling. If you see the machine you see above is the ion bunch corrosion machine (IBE, ION BEAM ETCHING). Ion beam corrosion machines are used to separate different levels on the semiconductor equipment, the separation surface is accurate and flat.
The current semiconductor device uses heterogeneous materials, such as the A6 chip uses Samsung 32-nanometer HKMG (metal gate) CMOS (metal gate) CMOS (metal gate) CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) treatment process, so IBE is an essential tool for the A6 chip dismantling.
Step 2:
This is the staff of the Chipworks Development Team to set the parameters to the IBE, preparing for the dielectric on the node chip. For example, the A6 chip may have a 9-layer copper layer and a 1 layer of aluminum layer, as well as polysilicon and a matrix layer.
In the laboratory of Chipworks, a dust-free workbench, a ventilator, etc.
third step:
Semiconductor Doping profile is important for us to analyze the performance and structure of the current advanced equipment.
Scan capacitor microscope can help check the N-channel field effect tube (NMOS, N-Channel Metal Oxide Semiconductor FET) and p-channel field effect tubes (PMOS, P-Channel Metal Oxide Semiconductor) in the A6 chip.
the fourth step:
After the A6 is ready, the technical personnel check results are processed. The view obtained by the optical microscope provides feedback to the skilled person in subsequent processing to find feedback to obtain maximum results.
The rear camera can be understood by microscope Chipworks. Inside the ISIGHT camera, we can know the manufacturer of the product.
Any secret is invisible in front of Chipworks.
the fifth step:
Different tasks require different tools. If you want to see the thickness of the gate oxide layer or the direction of the crystal dot matrix, then you need to use the transmissive electron microscope TEM shown in the figure above. Through Debroyi electronic wavelength, the resolution of the microscope is improved. The TEM work is to transmit an electron beam to a piece of material, then observe the way electronic and material interaction.
These are the techniques and equipment used by Chipwork for dismantling. Of course, they will not show their families. Next, we will come to see the dismantling of a 6 chip.
Step 6:
The evaluation of the iPhone 5 is as follows: This mobile phone is a new part ... is the best one from Apple since the first generation of iPhone.
- Red: Apple A6 Application Processor
- Orange: Apple 338S1077 Cirrus Audio Codec
- Yellow: Japan Village Murata 339S0171 Wi-Fi Module
- Green: Gaotong MDM9615 LTE modem
- Blue: High-Tong RTR8600 multi-band / mode radio frequency transceiver
Step 7: A6 processor
Go deep into A6 to see its source of driving:
This is the top of the A6 metal mold, it looks like a thin biscuit?
How do these photos get?
Chipworks first processes the A6 processor in the smoky sulfuric acid solution, and the heated temperature ensures optimal results. Then then use a microscope to get the image of the mold. The mold is mounted on the X-Y workbench control follow-y system, and its focus uses laser monitoring techniques to set. Image coordinates are programmed into the system. The microscope automatically moves the mold and takes a different photo, and finally takes a complete mold photo of these photos together.
The machine shown above is one of the machines that need to be used in this process.
Step 8:
In iPhone 5 disassembly, IFIXIT once explained that the silk screen label B8164B3PM indicates that the memory is ELPIDA's LP DDR2 SDRAM 1GB model memory.
The above two diagrams are the drawings and mold pictures confirmed that our strong premonition: A6 1GB LP DDR2 SDRAM memory comes from ELPIDA.
Step Ninth:
We can still find the traces of Samsung in the A6 chip. Apple A6 packaging marks APL0598 and internal APL0589B01 use Samsung 32 nano-CMOS treatment process, the proportion is 9.70 mm x 9.97 mm. Apple A6 processor is Apple's first custom design processor, which is based on an ARMV7S instruction set.
Because Apple has complete control over the design of the processor, they can customize and adjust their performance according to their own preferences. The surface area is 96.71 square millimeters, which is larger than the previous generation A5 chip (about 70 square millimeters).
Step 10:
The most obvious characteristic of A6 center is its dual-core ARM core, as well as trie-core Powervrsgx 543MP3 GPU.
Compare the core of the GPU and the core below it, the former is more rigorous, and the latter is not enough. Under normal circumstances, logical blocks use advanced computer software to perform automatic layout, but in the figure we see the ARM core block layout seems to be manually arranged. The advantage of manual arrangement layout is to achieve faster processing speed, but it is also time consuming, cost higher.
Step 11:
The above figure is a picture of the transistor structure cross section, has been enlarged.
Things such as small wooden piles are connected to these levels.
These very slender lines prove A6 indeed use 32 nm HKMG processing processes. In the field effect transistor, K such a dielectric is composed of a layer between the gate electrodes and the silicon, which is the physical parameters of the material, which helps to control the opening voltage of the transistor.
Step 12: Other chips
Apple 338S1077 found in iPhone 5 dismantling confirms that the CirrusCS35L19 D audio amplifier.
Cirrus CS35L19 mold, judge from the text of the text, it should be from the CS35L family.
Step 13:
The MURATA Wi-Fi SoC module is actually composed of Broadcombcm4334 and oscillator, capacitors, and resistors.
Broadcom BCM4334 mold diagram, 40 nm CMOS processing processes using TSMC, its key characteristics include Wi-Fi (802.11 A / B / g / n), Bluetooth 4.0 + HS, and FM receivers.
These components under X-rays are undoubtedly. Village Company assembles these components together and then assembles them on the iPhone logic board. Chipworks is so described: all of the houses used in this house built in Village Company.
Step 14:
IPHONE 5 disassembly We have already introduced high-pass MDM9615LTE modem, which allows multi-band / multi-mode LTE support, responsible for real-time voice and data transmission on LTE, high-pass RTR8600 multi-band / mode RF transceiver supports multi-band together with MDM9615.
HG11-N3877 LTE baseband mold
Samsung 1G-F-MC 128 MB Memory Mold (MDM9615)
RTR8600 Mold
The above is the wonderful dismantling of the A6 chip! This dismantling confirmed the result of the previous test, and the A6 chip built-in 1GB memory, dual-core CPU and triple-core GPU.
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