Motorola XOOM MZ600 Mobile Tablet Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The Motorola XOOM mobile tablet (Android 3.0, Honeycomb OS) is Motorola's boldest move yet to create a viable competitor to the Apple iPad who has enjoyed a nearly full year of little, if any competition in the explosive tablet computing market space.

By every measure, the XOOM tablet - in conjunction with Google's Android Honeycomb OS - is an ambitious attempt to distinguish both in hardware and software from the Apple iPad and their cross-platform iOS. Motorola (at the time of writing) released only one memory configuration of the Motorola XOOM - model MZ600 - with 32GB, however, they differentiated by adding an upgradeable 4G option. Unfortunately, this will require that users ship their XOOM tablets back to the factory for the retrofit (which is essentially a miniPCIe module and software updates).

Inside the XOOM tablet we find that Motorola has done their homework by not repeating the mistake of just scaling a smartphone design (as in the case of the Samsung Galaxy Tab) but starting fresh from the perspective of display and touchscreen glass and focusing on the user experience. Here, we see that Motorola has chosen a netbook format 10.1 inch format display from AU Optronics that by all measures appears to be a higher quality VA TFT display. This display module is then mated with a very advanced touchscreen module that boast up to 1386 nodes - powered by the Atmel mXT1386 chipset.

Powering the XOOM tablet and the new Android 3.0 OS as well is a dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor supported by 2 Elpida packages of SDRAM totaling a full GigaByte of DDR memory. We have seen the Tegra 2 previously on an Android Smartbook design (Toshiba AC100) but in that instance, it only had 512MB of DDR. This design definitely sets a new standard in SDRAM memory density in tablets.

On the 3G cellular side, we see a now commonplace Qualcomm MDM6600 slim modem solution supported by Toshiba MCP memory package and the companion Qualcomm PM8028 power management chip - same as chipset as we have just encountered in the CDMA version of the iPhone 4.

The Motorola XOOM is also packed with sensors, not just the run of the mill ambient light sensors and accelerometers but a 3-axis gyro as well as a Bosch Sensortec pressure monitor (likely have applications in in-door navigation).

Unlike the original Apple iPad, the Motorola XOOM comes with both primary 5MP and a front-facing 2MP camera. These specifications are not unexpected but the resolution of which still best the ones being offered on the upcoming iPad2.

Target Market

Tablet Computing

Released

February 2011

Pricing and Availability

Pricing - The Motorola XOOM mobile tablet retails for $800 without a contract on Verizon.

Availability - North America (MZ600), other models MZ601/3 (UMTS/HSPA) slated for global markets

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have applied a lifetime production volume of approximately 3M units.

As a reminder, teardown volume production assumptions are primarily used for our cost analysis in terms of amortized NRE and tooling costs, especially for custom components specific to the model being analyzed (mechanical components especially). Unless assumed volumes are different by an order of magnitude, minor changes in volume (say 1 million vs. 2) rarely have a large net effect on our final analysis because of this.

Cost Notes

Main Cost Drivers (~85% of Total Materials Cost)

$72 - Touchscreen / Display Window - 10.1" Diagonal, Glass, Capacitive, w/ Flex PCB and Atmel mXT1386 and 3 mXT154 Touch Controllers

$68 - AU Optronics - B101EW04 V0 - Display Module - 10.1" Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 1280 x 800 Pixels

$52 - Toshiba Semiconductor - THGBM2G8D8FBAIB - Flash - eMMC NAND, 32GB, MLC

$23.60 - Elpida - EDB4016B1MA-6D-F - SDRAM - Mobile DDR2, 4Gb (256Mx15), 1.8V (Qty:2)

$21 - Battery - Li-Ion Polymer, 7.4V, 3250mAh

$18.05 - Nvidia - T20-H-A2 - Application Processor - Dual-Core ARM Cortex-A9 1GHz CPU, GeForce GPU, 1MB L2 Cache, 333MHz FSB, 40nm

$12.60 - Multek Hong Kong - 8-Layer - FR4/RCF HDI, 3+2+3, Lead-Free

$12.06 - Qualcomm - MDM6600 - Baseband / RF Transceiver - Dual-Mode, CDMA2000 1xEvDO/GSM/EDGE/HSPA+, 45nm

$10.25 - Primary Camera Module Value Line Item - 5.0MP CMOS BSI, 1/3.2" Format, Auto Focus Lens, w/ Voice Coil

$5.89 - Enclosure, Main, Rear - Die-Cast Aluminum, Anodized, Machined, Printed

$4.89 - Enclosure, Main, Chassis - Die-Cast Magnesium, w/ Injection Molded Plastic Upper Frame, & 7 Pressed-In Threaded Metal Inserts

$4.80 - Toshiba Semiconductor - Y9A0A111308LA - MCP - 1Gb NAND Flash + 512Mb Mobile SDRAM (Estimated)

$4.12 - Broadcom - BCM4329HKUBG - Bluetooth/FM/WLAN - Single Chip, WLAN IEEE802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, w/ FM Radio Receiver & Transmitter

$4 - Secondary Camera Module Value Line Item - 2MP CMOS, 1/5" Format, Fixed Lens, w/ Board to Board Connector

$3.90 - Charger - 12V, 1.5A, w/ 2.5m Cord

$3.26 - ST Ericsson - Power Management IC

Direct Materials $363.61

Direct Materials + Manufacturing$375.19

What Is Not Included in our Cost Analysis

The total materials and manufacturing costs reported in this analysis reflect ONLY the direct materials cost (from component vendors and assorted EMS providers), AND manufacturing with basic test. Not included in this analysis are costs above and beyond the material manufacture of the core device itself - cost of intellectual property, royalties and licensing fees (those not already included into the per component price), software, software loading and test, shipping, logistics marketing and other channel costs including not only EMS provider and the OEM's margin, but that of other resellers. Our cost analysis is meant to focus on those costs incurred in the manufacture of the core device and exceptionally in some circumstances the packaging and literature as well.

Manufacturing Notes

Country of Origin / Volume Assumptions

Based on device markings, we've based our analysis with the final assembly in China. Furthermore, we have assumed that custom mechanicals (plastics, metals, etc.) were also sourced in China.

Country of origin assumptions relate directly to the associated cost of manufacturing, where calculated by iSuppli. In the cases of "finished" sub-assemblies (such as Ethernet connectors), we do not calculate internal manufacturing costs, but rather assess the market price of the finished product in which case country of origin assumptions may or may not have a direct effect on pricing.

Remember also that labor rates are applied directly only to hand inserted components and systems in our bill of materials, and although regional assumptions do, these new rates do not have a direct effect on our modeled calculations of placement costs for automated SMD assembly lines. "Auto" inserted components (such as SMT components) placement costs are calculated by an iSuppli algorithm which allocates a cost per component based on the size and pincount of the device. This calculation is affected by country or region of origin as well.

Design for Manufacturing / Device Complexity

The Motorola XOOM has an overall component count of 1542 (excluding box contents), of which 1302 components reside on the Main PCB. In comparison, the iPad 3G previous analyzed has an overall component count of 1617.

Component counts have a direct bearing on the overall manufacturing cycle times and costs, and also can increase or decrease overall yields and re-work. Our calculations of manufacturing costs factor counts and more qualitative complexities in the design. The cost of manufacturing is also, to some extent, decreased in this case because of assumed labor rate applied for China.

Note that manual labor has a much smaller effect on auto-insertion assembly lines (for the Main PCB, for example), where manufacturing costs are much more capital equipment intensive and driven by these investment costs.

Design Notes

Motorola has not only piled on the features in the XOOM tablet but along the way, produced quite a complex piece of electronics on the Main PCB. Not only does the main PCB hold both the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, NAND memory, Qualcomm baseband processor, but it is also the primary substrate that host a cornucopia of MEMS sensors and antennas. In fact, the XOOM contains no less than 8 antennas: (1/2) a pair of ceramic LTE MIMO antennas, (3) Bluetooth Antenna (4/5) primary and diversity CDMA antenna (6) LTE diversity antenna (7) GPS and (8) WLAN

Here is a summary of the major components used in the Motorola XOOM tablet design:

Display / Touchscreen

• Display Module - AU Optronics - B101EW04 V0, 10.1" Diagonal, 262K Color TFT, 1280 x 800 Pixels
• Touchscreen / Display Window - 10.1" Diagonal, Glass, Capacitive, w/ Flex PCB and Atmel mXT1386 and 3 mXT154 Touch Controllers

Main PCB

Memory

• Flash - Toshiba Semiconductor - THGBM2G8D8FBAIB, eMMC NAND, 32GB, MLC
• SDRAM - Elpida - EDB4016B1MA-6D-F, Mobile DDR2, 4Gb (256Mx15), 1.8V (Supports Nvidia Tegra 2)
• MCP - Toshiba Semiconductor - Y9A0A111308LA, 1Gb NAND Flash + 512Mb Mobile SDRAM (Supports Qualcomm MDM6600)

Apps Processing

• Application Processor - Nvidia - T20-H-A2

Baseband / RF / PA

• Baseband / RF Transceiver - Qualcomm - MDM6600, Dual-Mode, CDMA2000 1xEvDO/GSM/EDGE/HSPA+, 45nm

BT / FM / GPS / WLAN

• Bluetooth/FM/WLAN - Broadcom - BCM4329HKUBG, Single Chip, WLAN IEEE802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, w/ FM Radio Receiver & Transmitter
• GPS Receiver - Broadcom - BCM4750IUBG, Single-Chip, A-GPS, 90nm RF CMOS

Power Management

• Power Management IC - ST Ericsson
• Power Management IC - Qualcomm - PM8028
• Battery Charger - Texas Instruments - BQ24617RGE

User Interface

• Gyroscope - ST Microelectronics - L3G4200D, 3-Axis, Digital
• Pressure Sensor - Bosch Sensortec - BMP085