Honda 39100-SZA-A710-M2 Head-End Unit Teardown

IHS Insight Perspective

Honda and Infotainment - Honda has a two-pronged approach to infotainment systems, with higher-end infotainment systems going into models such as the Pilot and Odyssey, and a lower end package aimed at the Civic, CRV,CRZ, and Insight models. The high end of the spectrum even include hard drive based NAV systems. Honda often offers premium audio systems, but that are not branded (such as branding with Bose or Harman Kardon). Furthermore, Honda has also historically taken somewhat of a follower role in telematics by not implementing features such as OnStar (or its equivalent), or advanced Bluetooth options. In this aspect Honda have been a bit of a laggard vs. brands such as Hyundai, Toyota, GM and Ford. On the other hand Honda offer free FM radio transmitted traffic updates (as opposed to a paid subscription service) which represents an advantage over other automotive OEMs.

Honda 39100-SZA-A710-M2 Head-End Unit Main Image

The 39100-SZA-A710-M2 is a head unit for the 2012 Honda Pilot. This is an entire self-contained unit that features the CD drive, display as well as all of the tuners and supporting electronics for the audio-infotainment in one top-level assembly that includes all of the front-facing bezels and cosmetic covers. Automotive infotainment systems are becoming increasing important to consumers and figure heavily in car buying decisions as a 'fast moving' public gravitates towards the latest smartphones, they have come to expect more from their in-car electronics. The connected car is now the third fasted growing connected device behind smartphones and tablets and it is this fact that is driving each and every automaker to compete so vigorously for the crown of best in-vehicle infotainment. This system, as part of the 2012 Honda Pilot platform, represents one variant of the in-dash OEM head units that come with Honda Pilots.

Feature Significance

This is a fairly conventional OEM head unit featuring a small custom 6.2' diagonal monochrome display (segmented and graphical), with a front facing slot load CD drive, hard drive-based NAV system, and dual FM radio tuners. It is believed that one FM tuner is used for audio reception, and the other to receive traffic data via FM radio transmission. This head unit appears to be an upgrade unit from the 39100-SZA-A31 which had a smaller display, and single tuner. The 39100-SZA-A710-M2 appears to be the head unit for systems with rear entertainment packages.

Honda 39100-SZA-A710-M2 Head-End Unit - Main PCB Top

There are a lot more components in this system when compared with the more entry level 39100-SZA-A31 head unit. Component counts and costs go up with the additional features of NAV system (HDD-based), which includes a whole extra sub-assembly / PCBA to support NAV functions. Furthermore, this upgraded edition features dual FM tuners. Overall complexity is very simple when compared with higher end units we have examined, but the overall complexity is double that of Honda's own entry-level system.

The core of the design is also a 32-bit Renesas MCU (UPD70F3368GJ(A)) which operates at 32MHz. The audio side is supported by an NXP SAF7730HV audio DSP, and tuner module of unknown origin that features an NXP TEF6721HL radio tuner IC (AM/FM/IBOC-DAB/Weather Band, AM LW/MW/SW, FM 64MHz-108MHz, US Weather Band 162.4MHz-162.55MHz). However there is a second tuner module from Alps that features an NXP TEA5763 FM radio tuner IC. This second one would presumably be the receiver for traffic condition data.

The GPS functionality is provided by a PCB assembly that most notably includes a GPS module from Furuno Electric (GN-8407B) which is itself based on a two-chip solution labaled as Furuno as well, however the die markings reveal that Furuno are using ST (for Baseband) and NEC (for the receiver). The core of this PCBA is a Renesas GPS / Graphics Processor (SoC, SH-4A CPU Core, 1080MIPS, 600MHz - R8A77750) and is also supported by an Alpine Electronics aduio processor chip (ARM926).

Target Market

Mass Market

Released

2011 Assumed

This head unit is part of the 2012 Honda Pilot which appears to have undergone a refresh for 2012 - so this equipment should be at the beginning of it's lifecycle (3 years) for Honda.

Pricing and Availability

N/A MSRP

No market price is established for this type of unit as it is OEM to OEM or internally built for use in vehicles.

USA

Availability - North American 2012 Honda Pilot automobiles - depends on options package

Volume Estimations

60,000 Total Units
3 Total Years

For the purposes of this teardown analysis, we have assumed an Annual Production Volume of 60000 units and a Product Lifetime Volume of 3 year(s).

Teardown volume and 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.

Honda 39100-SZA-A710-M2 Head-End Unit Cost Analysis

Automotive electronics typically have specifications or require special vendor qualification processes that typically come at a premium (which varies from component to component) over less rigorously spec'ed commercial product. We always make a best effort to account for this across the board in automotive products.

Total BOM: $302.82
Top Cost Drivers below: $146.38
% of Total BOM 48%

Main Cost Drivers below

Toshiba MK6050GAC Hard Drive - 60GB, 2.5', Parallel ATA, 100MB/s, 4200 rpm, 2MB Buffer- (Qty: 1)
Display Module - 6.2' Diagonal, Monochrome, Segmented Alphanumeric & Graphical LCD Display, w/ Sanyo LC75847 LCD Driver & 16 High Intensity White LEDs Backlight- (Qty: 1)
CD Drive - Slot Load, Internal- (Qty: 1)
Furuno Electric GN-8407B GPS Receive Module- (Qty: 1)
Renesas R8A77750DBGNV GPS / Graphics Processor - SoC, SH-4A CPU Core, 1080MIPS, 600MHz, 64KB Cache, 24KB On-Chip RAM, Renesas 2D/3D Graphics Processor, GPS Baseband- (Qty: 1)
4-Layer - FR4, Pb Free- (Qty: 2)
Alpine Electronics ML673520 Audio Processor - ARM926EJ-S CPU, 200MHz, 32KB Cache, 8KB RAM, x10 Speed Digital Recording, Simultaneously Play Back Up To Three Songs, Hardware Sampling Rate Converter, CD/USB Memories/SD Card Compatible, USB2.0/SD Card Host Controller, NAND Flash Controller, CAN Controller, ATA/UART/I2C Interface- (Qty: 1)
Spansion S29GL512R10TFIR1 Flash - NOR, 512Mb, 3V, 100ns- (Qty: 2)
8-Layer, FR4, Pb Free- (Qty: 1)
1-Layer - Flex Kapton, w/ Stiffener- (Qty: 2)

Not Included in 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.

We do provide an Excel tab ''Overall Costs'' where a user can enter their known pre and post production costs to build a per unit cost reflective of theirs actual expenditures.

Manufacturing Notes

As with most electronic hardware, this equipment may be built for Honda by an outside contract manufacturer, but may also be built in-house. For the purposes of our analysis, our cost structures in manufacturing represent the cost to the manufacturer, without markup. If an EMS is involved, one would have to add a fair margin for the EMS provider, on top of our cost assessment, in order to provide a 'fair price' to the manufacturer. EMS providers often operate in the low single digits on margins, but tend to make up for such low margins when working with low volume products such as this.

Country of Origin

For the purposes of this analysis, we are assuming the following country(ies) of origin for each level of assembly, based on a combination of 'Made In' markings, and/or assumptions based on our knowledge of such equipment.

Center Interface PCB - Japan
Display Module - Japan
GPS / Processing PCB - Japan
Main PCB - Japan
Misc PCB Assemblies - Japan
Other - Enclosures / Final Assembly - Japan
Storage Device - Japan

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 display modules and optical drives), 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.

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 Complexity

Component counts by assembly and the number of assembly are indicators of design complexity and efficiency.

Component Qty: 1377 - GPS / Processing PCB
Component Qty: 188 - Other - Enclosures / Final Assembly
Component Qty: 2 - Storage Device
Component Qty: 847 - Main PCB
Component Qty: 423 - Center Interface PCB
Component Qty: 139 - Misc PCB Assemblies
Component Qty: 79 - Display Module
Component Qty: 3055 - Grand Total

Though every design is different, and component counts tend to be feature-driven - it's worth noting we have seen some Japanese head units with far far more components in them - and as a result, it's often hard for us to prejudge the inherent complexity of such systems. Surprises abound in this area and we have seen a head unit from Nissan that came in at over 5600 components (that did, in fairness include DTV receiver, touchscreens, etc.), and a Toyota head unit that also came in at over 4300 components. Component counts are feature driven to some extent, and this more feature-rich unit already has double the component count of the lower end Honda Pilot head unit (39100-SZA-A31) which came in at around 1300 components.

Design Notes

The core of the design is also a 32-bit Renesas MCU (UPD70F3368GJ(A)) which operates at 32MHz. The audio side is supported by an NXP SAF7730HV audio DSP, and tuner module of unknown origin that features an NXP TEF6721HL radio tuner IC (AM/FM/IBOC-DAB/Weather Band, AM LW/MW/SW, FM 64MHz-108MHz, US Weather Band 162.4MHz-162.55MHz). However there is a second tuner module from Alps that features an NXP TEA5763 FM radio tuner IC. This second one would presumably be the receiver for traffic condition data.

The GPS functionality is provided by a PCB assembly that most notably includes a GPS module from Furuno Electric (GN-8407B) which is itself based on a two-chip solution labaled as Furuno as well, however the die markings reveal that Furuno are using ST (for Baseband) and NEC (for the receiver). The core of this PCBA is a Renesas GPS / Graphics Processor (SoC, SH-4A CPU Core, 1080MIPS, 600MHz - R8A77750) and is also supported by an Alpine Electronics aduio processor chip (ARM926).

Honda 39100-SZA-A710-M2 Head-End Unit - Disassembly View 1