iFixit’s Teardown Of iPad Air Reveals Customized A7 Processor

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Rather than cruising the streets for candy, the guys at iFixit spent All Hallow’s Eve tearing down the new iPad Air with all the tender loving care we’ve come to appreciate from the fixit gurus.

iFixit found few surprises during their teardown, but did discover that the APL5698 A7 processor Apple packed away in the iPad Air is a slightly different from the  APL0698 version of the A7 found in the iPhone 5s, though it’s not clear what customizations Apple added to the chip.

The iPad Air comes with a gigantic battery that iFixit says is the one of the most difficult they’ve tried to remove, and the other components are much easier to swap out. As with most Apple devices, iFixit found that the iPad Air is horrifically hard to repair and gave it a repairability score of 2 out of 10.

Here are some of the internal goodies iFixit found in the iPad Air:

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  • Apple APL5698 A7 Processor—a slightly different version from the APL0698 in the iPhone 5s
  • Elpida F8164A1MD 1 GB LPDDR3 SDRAM
  • Qualcomm M9616M LTE Processor with 1 Gb (128 MB) of DRAM
  • Toshiba THGBX2G7B2JLA01 16 GB NAND Flash
  • NXP LPC18A1 (Apple M7 Motion Co-Processor)
  • Apple 343S0655-A1—this looks to be a Dialog Power Management IC
  • USI 339S0213 Wi-Fi Module
  • Apple 338S1116 Cirrus Audio Codec, also found in the iPhone 5c
  • TriQuint TQF6514 RF Power Amplifier Module—similar to the 6414 in the iPhone 5s
  • Three Skyworks SKY77-series LTE RF Power Amplifier/Duplexer Modules
  • Two Avago A79-series LTE RF Power Amplifier/Duplexer Modules
  • 227 LG—likely a Murata Antenna Switch/Filter Module
  • WTR1605L Transceiver Module
  • Qualcomm PM8018 PMIC
  • Broadcom BCM5976C1KUB6G Touch Screen Controllers

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Source: iFixit

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