Acer Aspire 5516-5474 Notebook Computer Teardown

Overview / Main Features

The Acer Aspire 5516-5474 is a 15.6-inch display notebook computer featuring an AMD Athlon 64 TF-20 process and a companion AMD RS690 chipset. The portable computer is configured with 2GB of DDR2 RAM, 160GB hard disk drive, integrated DVD RW drive, a Broadcom miniPCIe WLAN module, 4-in-1 media card reader and Synaptics touchpad.

Acer Aspire 5516-5474 Notebook Computer Main Image

Value Notebook

Released

Q2 2009

Acer Aspire 5516-5474 Notebook Computer - Motherboard Top

Pricing and Availability

Pricing - The Aspire 5516-5474 (as configured) has a MSRP of $400. At the time of writing (Oct. 2009), the Aspire 5516-5474 can be purchased for approximately $380 on various online retailers.

Availability - Assumed global

Volume Estimations

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed a lifetime production volume of 1 million 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 increment by an order of magnitude. Minor changes in volume (say 1 million vs. 2) rarely have a large net effect on our final analysis.

Acer Aspire 5516-5474 Notebook Computer - Motherboard Bottom

Major Cost Drivers (Representing ~80% of total materials costs)

AU Optronics - B156XW01 V0 (H/W 0A) - Display Module Value Line Item - 15.6' TFT LCD, Widescreen, 1366x768 (WXGA), 262K Color, 344.2mm x 193.5mm Viewable Area, 16:9 Aspect Ratio, 220cd/m^2 Brightness

Hitachi - HTS543216L9A300 - Hard Drive - 160GB, SATA 3Gb/s, 2.5', 5400rpm, 8MB Buffer

AMD - AMGTF20HAX4DN - CPU - AMD Athlon 64 TF-20, 1.60GHz, 128KB L1 Cache, 512KB L2 Cache, 65nm

Sony Optiarc Inc. - AD-7580S - CD/DVD RW Drive - Slim Internal Type, Tray Load, SATA, 8X DVD±R, 6X DVD±R Dual Layer, 24X CD±R

Sanyo - AS09A31 - Battery Pack - Li-ion, 10.8V, 4400mAh, 48Wh

Samsung Semiconductor - M470T5663EH3-CE6 - SODIMM DDR2-667 - 2GB, 256Mb x 64, 1.8V

Hipro - HP-A0652R3B - AC Adapter - 19V, 3.42A, 65W, w/ 6ft Cord & Velcro Strap

HannStar - 6-Layer - FR4

AMD - 216LQA6AVA12FG - Northbridge - RS690 Family IGP, Integrated ATI Radeon X1200 Graphics Engine, TV Decoder & DVI/HDMI Interface

Enclosure, Main, Top - Injection Molded ABS Polycarbonate, Printed, Painted, w/ 17 Brass Inserts & ESD/EMI Coating, Recyclable

Total BOM Cost $315.99

Acer Aspire 5516-5474 Notebook Computer 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.

Acer Aspire 5516-5474 Notebook Computer -Enclosure

OEM/ODM/EMS Relationships / Manufacturing

Acer outsources 100% of their manufacturing to ODM/EMS partners. According to iSuppli's "Global OEM Manufacturing and Design Analysis - Compute Platforms, Acer's major contract manufacturers in 2008 are Wistron, Compal Quanta and Inventec respectively in order of shares.

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 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 LCD display), 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

Invariably, laptop computers represent some of the more complex and electronically dense devices. Manufacturing costs for more densely configured devices in inevitably higher than such products as desktops where assembly is facilitated and costs reduced by not having to resort to more sophisticated, costly and complex systems for such things as interconnect (flex cable, PCBs, etc.). Furthermore, higher density PCBs cost inherently more, as typically this affects board layer counts, via structures and complexity, etc.

With that said, the overall component count on the Acer Aspire 5516-5474 came out to 1571 (excluding box contents), of which, 288 are mechanical in nature. This component count level is on par with the average complexity level of the population of notebook computer teardowns in our library.

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

Here is a summary of the major components used in the Acer Aspire 5516-5474 design:

Motherboard

CPU

• AMD - AMGTF20HAX4DN - Athlon 64 TF-20, 1.60GHz, 128KB L1 Cache, 512KB L2 Cache, 65nm

Northbridge

• AMD - 216LQA6AVA12FG - RS690 Family IGP, Integrated ATI Radeon X1200 Graphics Engine, TV Decoder & DVI/HDMI Interface

Southbridge

• AMD - 218S6ECLA21FG - SB600 Family, I/O & Audio Controller Hub

I/O & Interface

• ENE Technology Inc. - KB926QF - Embedded Controller - LPC Interface
• Realtek - ALC272X-GR - Audio Codec (4-Channel, High Definition)
• Atheros - AR8132L-AL1E - Ethernet Controller
• Realtek - RTS5159-GR - Memory Card Reader Controller

Memory

• SODIMM DDR2-667 - Samsung Semiconductor - M470T5663EH3-CE6 (2GB, 256Mb x 64, 1.8V)

Display

• AU Optronics - B156XW01 V0 (H/W 0A) - Display Module (15.6' TFT LCD, Widescreen, 1366x768 (WXGA), 262K Color, 344.2mm x 193.5mm Viewable Area, 16:9 Aspect Ratio, 220cd/m^2 Brightness)

Storage

• Hitachi - HTS543216L9A300 Hard Drive - 160GB, SATA 3Gb/s, 2.5', 5400rpm, 8MB Buffer
• Sony Optiarc Inc. - AD-7580S - CD/DVD RW Drive (Slim Internal Type, Tray Load, SATA, 8X DVD±R, 6X DVD±R Dual Layer, 24X CD±R)

WLAN

• Broadcom - BCM94312MCG - WLAN Mini PCIe Module Value Line Item, IEEE802.11b/g

Battery

• Sanyo - AS09A31 - Li-ion, 10.8V, 4400mAh, 48Wh

"

Acer Aspire 5516-5474 Notebook Computer - Box Contents