The document discusses smartphone hardware architecture. It defines a smartphone as a mobile phone combined with computer capabilities and sensors. The main components are an application processor chip, connectivity platform chip, memory, battery, and wireless radios. An example breakdown is given of the Samsung Galaxy S III, which uses a quad-core processor, 2 GB RAM, and Qualcomm transceiver chips.

1. Mokwon University
Yong Heui CHO(조용희)
yhcho@mu.ac.kr
Smartphone Hardware
Architecture

2. Definition
 Smartphone
 Mobile phone + computer + sensors +
wireless I/O
 Mobile OS: speed vs. battery life
2
←inbritech.com

3. Computer of Tomorrow
Devoid of CPU and memory
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4. Smartphone HW: AP
 Application Platform Chip
 AP: Application Processor
 Flash memory
 Mobile Dynamic RAM
 PMU: Power Management Unit
 Audio Codec
 Bluetooth
 WiFi
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5. Smartphone HW: CP
 Connectivity Platform Chip
 CPU: Central Processing Unit
 DSP: Digital Signal Processing
 RF baseband processing
 Voice processing
 PA: Power Amplifier
 Tx-Rx switch
 DAC + ADC
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6. Openmoko Project
 Open source mobile phone project
UART: Universal Asynchronous Rx/Tx
SDIO: Secure Digital I/O
GPIO: General Purpose I/O
I2C: Inter-Integrated Circuit
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7. Samsung Galaxy S III
 Samsung released Galaxy S III in May 2012.
 Quad-core A9 processor
7 ←techrepublic.com

8. Breakdown of Galaxy S III
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9. Li-ion Battery
 3.8 [V]: used for bias of active devices
(amplifiers, mixers, …)
 This voltage should be small to consume
smaller power (P = I x V)
 2,100 [mAh]: unit for energy (W x hour)
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10. A9 Processor
 1.4 GHz, 2 GB RAM
 Designed by Samsung (licensed from
ARM) and manufactured by Samsung
NEON: Multimedia
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11. Jack, Speaker, GPS Antenna
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12. 2 GB Mobile DRAM
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13. PMIC
 Qualcomm Power Management IC
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14. RF Transceiver
 Qualcomm multiband/mode RF
transceiver
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15. Quad-Band PA
 TriQuint GSM/GPRS/EDGE power
amplifier
LTE PA
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