Acer Aspire One 532h Netbook Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The Acer Aspire One 532h is a 10 inch netbook based on an Intel Atom N450 and NM10 chipset commonly referred to as the 'Pineview' platform. The mobile computer comes with 1 GB of DDR2 RAM on SO-DIMM module, 160GB hard disk drive, WLAN half miniPCIe card, integrated VGA resolution webcam and a 6-cell battery.

Acer Aspire One 532h Netbook Main Image

Low cost mobile computing segment

Released

2009

Acer Aspire One 532h Netbook - Motherboard Top

Pricing - Approximately $300 USD at retail

Availability - Global (assumed)

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a lifetime production volume of 4.8M 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.

Acer Aspire One 532h Netbook - Motherboard Bottom

Main Cost Drivers Representing ~80% of total materials cost

Seagate - ST9160314AS - Hard Drive - 160GB, 2.5' SATA 3Gb/s, 5400RPM, 8MB Buffer

AU Optronics - B101AW03 - Display Module Value Line Item - 10.1'' TFT LCD, TN Mode, 1024 x 600 Pixels, 0.218mm x 0.209mm Pixel Size, 262K Colors, 400:1 Contrast Ratio, 200cd/m^2 Brightness, 16ms Response Time, Active Area: 222.7mm x 125.3mm, LED Backlight

Intel - AU80610004653AA - CPU - Intel Atom N450 1.66GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB, 45nm Process

Sanyo Energy Co., Ltd. - UM09H36 - Battery Pack - Li-Ion, 6-Cell, 11.1V, 5600mAh, 63Wh

Kingston - ACR128X64D2S800C6 - SO-DIMM DDR2-800 - 1GB, 64Mx8, 1.8V

Intel - CG82NM10SLGXX - Platform Controller Hub - Intel CG82NM10 Chipset, 130nm, 2.1W

Leader Electronics Inc. - U40-11190-010S - AC Adapter - 19V, 2.15A, 40W, w/ 2.6m Cord, Velcro Strap & Removable Plug Unit

Atheros - AR5B95 - WLAN Half Mini PCIe Module Value Line Item - IEEE802.11b/g/n, Contains AR9285 Single-Chip Solution

Sunrex - Keyboard Assembly - Injection Molded Plastic Keys, Mounted on Stamped Metal Backing Plate, w/ Interconnect Flex

Webcam PCB - Contains VGA Camera Module, Microphone, USB2.0 Video Interface Controller & Supporting Elements

Enclosure, Main, Top - Injection Molded ABS Polycarbonate, Painted, Printed, w/ ESD/EMI Coating & 15 Brass Inserts

Enclosure, Main, Bottom - Injection Molded ABS Polycarbonate, w/ ESD/EMI Coating & 21 Brass Inserts

Alps Electric Co., Ltd. - Touchpad Assembly

Total BOM Cost $230.40

Acer Aspire One 532h Netbook Cost Analysis

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 markings, the unit was assembled 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 miniPCIe card), 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 Acer Aspire One 532h netbook has an overall component count of 1361.

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.

Acer Aspire One 532h Netbook - Box Contents