TechInsights Teardown: Garmin BMW i7 head unit

Automotive control systems have continued to expand in complexity with more electronics being added to the systems than ever before.

Vehicles are also getting more electronics installed as vehicle-to-everything becomes pervasive in the industry and connected vehicles is becoming a standard.

The Garmin BMW i7 head unit uses the applications processor from Qualcomm and main memory from Micron and SanDisk.

The following is a partial deep dive into the control unit conducted by TechInsights.

Summary

• 12 GB mobile LPDDR4X SDRAM
• Applications processor subsystem
• 256 GB 3D TLC NAND Flash

Price: $350

Released: June 2023

Availability: Worldwide

Target market: Automotive

The main board found inside the Garmin BMW i7 head unit. Source: TechInsights

Main board

The main board of controls the control unit for the automotive system. The electronic components on the board are:

• Texas Instruments’ USB Type-A charging solution, current sense amplifier, automotive USB charge port controller and 300 mA/2.5-volt LDO regulator
• SanDisk’s 256 GB 3D TLC NAND flash memory
• Winbond’s 2MB serial flash memory
• NXP Semiconductors’ CAN transceiver and 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi 6/Bluetooth 5.3 IC
• Inova Semiconductor’s high-speed digital multi-channel transmitter
• Marvell Semiconductor’s eight-port gigabit Ethernet switch
• Nexperia’s single two-input OR gate
• Diodes Inc’s power MOSFET

(Learn more about discrete components on Globalspec.com)

The processor subsystem that is the main control system of the Garmin BMW i7 head unit. Source: TechInsights

Processor subsystem

The applications processor subsystem is the heart of the Garmin BMW i7 control system with the main processor being the Qualcomm automotive cockpit platform. The other components in the subsystem are:

• Micron’s 6 GB mobile LPDDR4X SDRAM memory
• Qualcomm’s power management IC

(Learn more about processors on Globalspec.com)

All of the electronic components found inside the BMW head unit. Source: TechInsights

Major components

• $177.53 — Processor subsystem — Lantronix (Qty: 1)
• $16.64 — 256 GB 3D TLC NAND flash — Sandisk (Qty: 1)
• $12.43 — Top cover (Qty: 1)
• $9.79 — Bottom cover (Qty: 1)
• $6.47 — 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi 6/Bluetooth 5.3 — NXP Semiconductors (Qty: 1)
• $5.69 — Eight-layer conventional FR4/HF (Qty: 1)
• $3.64 — Heat sink (Qty: 1)
• $3.31 — Small fan (Qty: 1)
• $3.30 — Fakra Wi-Fi/BT (Qty: 1)
• $3.10 — 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F Automotive MCU — Infineon (Qty: 1)