Intel Inside: disassemble the latest Digma devices on the Intel platform and wonder about the progress of Chinese engineering
When I wrote in May 2010 about the imminent arrival of the Intel Atom in smartphones and tablets, for most IT experts, this news caused wry smiles. X86 architecture in such compact devices? With its energy consumption? Do not you say!
I didn’t just wonder, but I wrote, peeping at Intel’s presentation, not intended for the masses. Short, there are five slides in total. But from it followed that by the end of 2010 (read - to CES 2011) several smartphones on the Intel Atom processor should enter the market.
')
As we know, this did not happen. There are two main reasons. The first is the consequences of the first wave of the economic crisis, which had a negative effect on the budgets of the partners, aimed at the implementation of bold plans. In absolute terms, R & D costs did not seem to be reduced, but they were mainly aimed at simplifying technical processes and cheapening production. The fact that the current technology looks much more flimsy than its pre-crisis predecessors is just a consequence of those "improvements."
But the second reason for the delay is much more serious. Cool, economical and quite powerful for its time, the Intel Atom was manufactured on time. However, from one processor, the smartphone did not work. Required "kit" - numerous sensors, like a gyroscope and a GPS-receiver. Intel simply didn’t have any experience in its creation, if we don’t recall the period before the sale of the ARM division of the Marvell Technology Group, which ended in June 2006. Even if some developments remained, four years later, there was little sense from them. So, smartphones on the Atom market went on sale only in the summer of 2011, and at least some mass phenomenon became only in 2012.
The story with the tablets is a little more complicated, because if someone doesn’t remember, Android recently didn’t use special demand in a large form factor, and didn’t have time to get to the first iPad Atom processor (this is written in some detail in the official biography of Steve Jobs) . True, there were tablet PCs on the Microsoft platform, but before the advent of Windows 8 with its conditional-touch interface, there was very little use for them. Yes, and there were few willing to get a tablet with a propeller.
At the end of 2013, the picture looks restrained and optimistic. Smartphones and tablets on Intel processors come under quite serious brands, such as Asus, Motorola and Samsung, and outwardly they are no different from their counterparts in the ARM architecture. They work on the battery about the same, and even warm up less. The sensors are all in place, there is a fresh version of Android. But the performance is frankly not enough. Over the past year and a half, Apple, Qualcomm and Samsung have made a very serious leap forward, and at Intel, it seems, they have focused mainly on all sorts of optimizations. As a result, it is impossible to compete with the best SoC samples with ARM architecture. In some benchmarks, Intel Atom seems to be barbar colleagues, but it is worth running a serious game, like Asphalt 8, as everything falls into place. Strong middling, and no miracles (in Intel, however, they say that the problem is also in the lack of code optimization for x86 architecture in most applications. Work on this is underway, and now 27% of the TOP-100 applications have already been optimized. However, on coverage It’s too early to report to most).
Atom can fight with numerous Chinese SoC, produced by MediaTek, Rockchip and others like them. But here comes another nuance. If the flagship products at Qualcomm in companies often finish on their own, then cheaper models are usually ordered by so-called “design houses” in China (although this is often the case with old Qualcomm platforms). Because of this, funny replays sometimes happen, but for budget buyers they are not important. There are a lot of such companies in China. For example, designs of smartphones and tablets on the MediaTek platform develop more than a hundred teams. The competition between them is the toughest. It is to her that we owe to the impressive progress that the devices on the SoC MediaTek demonstrated in 2013. Each design house works in close cooperation with factories, which number in the tens. It is in such a collective work, in many respects resembling the Soviet model, that the success of the Chinese Hi-Tech is forged.
There are design houses that create devices on the Intel platform. But for the whole of China, there are only 3 (three) pieces so far. There is no particular competition between them, because a) the stimulated demand is known by whom demand exceeds supply, and b) for these companies, the most-favored-nation treatment and incentives are enabled. The number of Chinese factories producing ready-made mobile products on Intel, I do not know reliably. However, there are too few of them.
Companies ordering smartphones and tablets on Intel architecture should sell them later. The price competition imposed by the Chinese ODM / OEM is also very fierce now. The product can not be just good, it should be cheaper than analogues. Otherwise, it simply does not fall on the shelves. Intel platform is expensive. That is reasonable, but somewhat more expensive than MediaTek offers and others like them. So, if a company wants not only to create inventories, but also them, it should save on something else ...
All this represents a kind of prelude to the opening of three new mobile devices Digma, working on the Intel platform. Now we will look inside to one smartphone and two tablets, we will see there some things reflecting the situation described above, and we will estimate what can be done with this.
Let's start with the Digma Linx 4.5 smartphone. The device works on Intel Atom Z2460 (single core, frequency up to 1.6 GHz) and Android 4.1 operating system (there is no information about upgrading to 4.2 or higher). The smartphone is equipped with a 4.5 ”LCD display with a resolution of 854x480 pixels, onboard flash memory of 4 GB and 1 GB of RAM. The resolution of the main camera is 5 megapixels, the front one is 0.3 megapixels. There is a slot for microSD card. There is also support for 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n and Bluetooth 3.0. It is planned to sell the device for 6000 rubles.
I will write about user experience separately. In this material we are talking about stuffing.
An autopsy revealed that we have a very budget construction. There is a maximum use of components from other designs: the cables are slightly longer than necessary, it is written on the SIM card slot that two pieces can be inserted, although in fact this is not the case. The power connector is very similar to its fellow Nokia N97, famous for very low reliability. Master Alexander Levchenko suggested that the contacts could withdraw after six months of active use.
In general, the study of the motherboard leaves a feeling of some eclectic design. Pretty surprised with a flash memory module labeled Kingston. As we know, this company itself does not produce chips, but selects others, packs and labels for itself. Thus, the use of intermediary works is evident, which indicates a rush in the manufacture and small volumes of purchases (guys, like Hynix, with small volumes do not work in principle). When studying under a magnifying glass, you can see that some elements are soldered not perfectly straight. This is a sign of small-scale production using manual labor.
On the other hand, if you don’t know for sure, it’s almost impossible to distinguish the electronic filling from its counterpart on the MediaTek platform. The X86 architecture does not show itself.
Putting the smartphone back and take up the Digma Plane 10.1 3G tablet. It looks like an iPad from the face, and from the back it looks like an inexpensive counterpart on the SoC with ARM architecture. If the smartphone is shot down quite firmly, then the tablet is flimsy. The back cover is made of aluminum, but two plastic sidewall walk under the fingers. Especially the left, hiding all connectors - for flash drives, SIM cards, charging and HDMI port. It is believed that with the active use of its rubber feet will soon come off. At least in most smartphones, where the power connector was covered with a plug, this was exactly what happened.
But away from doubt, let's get inside. The back cover rests on snaps, but they are a) very tight and b) because of this, they are not very strong. They withstood one assembly-disassembly cycle successfully, but I would not advise doing this five times.
Inside we are waiting for a rather specific layout. What is strange? First, the battery takes up far from all free space inside the case. This means that they put the ready-made version, and did not make a special version for this model.
Secondly, the main chips are not filled with compound and not fixed. This is not good in terms of impact resistance. One good fall can cost a fallen off processor and a RAM chip above it. By the way, the latter hides a dual-core Atom Z2580 with a frequency of up to 2 GHz.
Thirdly, the size of the 3G module is simply prohibitive. Modern models are less than five times (or even ten). True, we are clearly in the presence of a Chinese product made according to honestlystyled purchased drawings not of the first freshness. I understand the pride of the Chinese masters (can you imagine how big the Russian equivalent would be?), But how much this monster is eating is hard to imagine.
Fourthly, the principle of fastening connectors (it is the same as in a smartphone), as well as the overall quality of soldering confuses. The speaker is mounted on an honest word and just fell off during the manipulations. Sensor controller for reliability glued with adhesive tape. I am afraid that this is also a small-scale assembly with all the accompanying factors.
If you remove the board and turn it, the word Merlion is found on it. Well, the main distributor of the country and the owner of the Digma brand can be congratulated - there is an element of exclusive development. But, of course, the one-sided design of the board in these times looks peculiar.
We turn to the third tablet Digma EVE 10.1. It is as light as the previous one, and its dimensions are exactly the same. But it works on the dual-core Celeron N2805 with a frequency of up to 1.46 GHz. The architecture used is Bay Trail-M, which has enough power to easily pull Windows 8.1. True, not stripped down RT. It is she who stands on EVE 10.1. This, of course, translates the tablet into a completely different league. After all, when you connect the keyboard and mouse, it becomes almost a real computer. A certain limitation can only be the amount of RAM (2 GB) and a very funny built-in SSD (32 GB). True, you can still add microSD and, at least, double the available volume. But still, in these times it is not enough. However, let's look inside - suddenly there is room for an upgrade?
When issuing a tablet, I was warned several times that this is a preliminary sample, and improved versions will be available for sale. But I confess that I have never seen such a mess inside a high-tech device. There was a feeling that the system did not work, and it was disassembled several times, correcting something right on the living. Talking about the accuracy of the assembly is not even necessary: ​​everything is kind of crumpled, the cables are anyhow, the processor is not fixed. I'd like to believe that everything will be fixed in the serial version, but for now - just like that.
It is impossible to upgrade the RAM - the chips are firmly soldered directly to the board. But you can upgrade the SSD, because it is removable and with a standard M.2 interface. By the way, meet the Chinese brand Foresee. His brainchild looks so-so, but it costs pennies and works pretty well. Also, it is not a pity to extract and put something decently, the benefit of options on eBay abound.
There is also a place for soldering the 3G module on the board. Judging by how much space is left for it, this is still the same monster from Digma Plane 10.1 3G. In the final version of the tablet, the module should be installed as standard.
I was particularly pleased with the ingenious engineering solution to ensure passive cooling. The back cover of the tablet is metal and, probably, it would be logical to remove heat through it. But no!
An unknown Chinese engineer invents a new way and removes heat ... to the screen matrix! Here is a move! Here is this insight! It seems to me that it would be better to just plug in the copper tube and connect the processor to the power controller. Then it would have turned out perfectly at all. Steve Jobs, however, looking at this, would have died a second time. But who cares about it in China?
But if you forget about the stuffing (in the end, not all of us look inside the gadgets), I liked the Digma EVE 10.1 the most. I have been using the Dell Latitude 10 tablet on the Intel Atom Z2760 for more than a year, and I have to admit that its exposed brother works much faster with less weight and a more elegant package. It remains to measure the battery life, but it feels like it is not less. In combination with the 3G module you get a nice device ...
What does what we see say?
If you focus on specific gadgets, the picture is rather sad. In terms of design and assembly is a quiet horror. Even with a fairly affordable price (Digma Plane 10.1 3G and Digma EVE 10.1 will cost 12 and 15 thousand rubles, respectively), I would not recommend buying them.
Abstracting from the quality of the assembly and comparing these devices with their counterparts on the ARM, again, it is not possible to find reasons for rapid optimism. At a comparable price, we get about the same thing, but for a number of parameters (for example, the screen resolution of both tablets is only 1280x800) and worse. So an obvious competitive advantage, apart from the Intel Inside logo on the filet part, cannot be felt.
But if you dress up in an analyst costume, fasten all the buttons and look at the situation strategically, she looks quite encouraging. Anyway, but most of the smartphones and tablets released on the Intel platform were something of a special project. The corporation persuaded the partners, together with them developed the design, helped financially and guaranteed the sale. For the seed, it is normal, but these projects were not business.
On the example of disassembled devices, we see how the Chinese masters themselves finish designs on the architecture of Intel. I would not believe that at least one engineer of the corporation had a hand in this horror and horror. In this case, Intel acts in the traditional role of the manufacturer of the CPU and chipset, combined in the SoC. And then, guys, let's do it yourself. It turns out, as we see, is not very beautiful. But there is no doubt that since the moment of making the samples the design has undergone hundreds of changes. And will undergo more than one thousand. And in a year, you see, they will catch up with their colleagues, who are tackling different things on the MediaTek platform.
Also on the market is about to appear new quad Atom'y Z37xx. In addition to the significantly increased (up to 2.43 GHz) clock frequency, they also have a new graphics core, replacing the older PowerVR SGX 544MP. In theory, there is a good chance to correct the performance situation. The new SoCs are manufactured according to the 22-nanometer technology that is unattainable for ARM. In a situation where the ARM architecture is clearly rested on the frequency limit, and the flagships on it literally burn hands, Intel can finally offer a tangible competitive advantage.
But this is a theory. We will see its embodiment (or not see it) already in 2014. Then, having returned from CES, I will write material about the operating experience of disassembled and safely assembled back gadgets.
Happy, reader! Good and smart year.
I didn’t just wonder, but I wrote, peeping at Intel’s presentation, not intended for the masses. Short, there are five slides in total. But from it followed that by the end of 2010 (read - to CES 2011) several smartphones on the Intel Atom processor should enter the market.
')
As we know, this did not happen. There are two main reasons. The first is the consequences of the first wave of the economic crisis, which had a negative effect on the budgets of the partners, aimed at the implementation of bold plans. In absolute terms, R & D costs did not seem to be reduced, but they were mainly aimed at simplifying technical processes and cheapening production. The fact that the current technology looks much more flimsy than its pre-crisis predecessors is just a consequence of those "improvements."
But the second reason for the delay is much more serious. Cool, economical and quite powerful for its time, the Intel Atom was manufactured on time. However, from one processor, the smartphone did not work. Required "kit" - numerous sensors, like a gyroscope and a GPS-receiver. Intel simply didn’t have any experience in its creation, if we don’t recall the period before the sale of the ARM division of the Marvell Technology Group, which ended in June 2006. Even if some developments remained, four years later, there was little sense from them. So, smartphones on the Atom market went on sale only in the summer of 2011, and at least some mass phenomenon became only in 2012.
The story with the tablets is a little more complicated, because if someone doesn’t remember, Android recently didn’t use special demand in a large form factor, and didn’t have time to get to the first iPad Atom processor (this is written in some detail in the official biography of Steve Jobs) . True, there were tablet PCs on the Microsoft platform, but before the advent of Windows 8 with its conditional-touch interface, there was very little use for them. Yes, and there were few willing to get a tablet with a propeller.
At the end of 2013, the picture looks restrained and optimistic. Smartphones and tablets on Intel processors come under quite serious brands, such as Asus, Motorola and Samsung, and outwardly they are no different from their counterparts in the ARM architecture. They work on the battery about the same, and even warm up less. The sensors are all in place, there is a fresh version of Android. But the performance is frankly not enough. Over the past year and a half, Apple, Qualcomm and Samsung have made a very serious leap forward, and at Intel, it seems, they have focused mainly on all sorts of optimizations. As a result, it is impossible to compete with the best SoC samples with ARM architecture. In some benchmarks, Intel Atom seems to be barbar colleagues, but it is worth running a serious game, like Asphalt 8, as everything falls into place. Strong middling, and no miracles (in Intel, however, they say that the problem is also in the lack of code optimization for x86 architecture in most applications. Work on this is underway, and now 27% of the TOP-100 applications have already been optimized. However, on coverage It’s too early to report to most).
Atom can fight with numerous Chinese SoC, produced by MediaTek, Rockchip and others like them. But here comes another nuance. If the flagship products at Qualcomm in companies often finish on their own, then cheaper models are usually ordered by so-called “design houses” in China (although this is often the case with old Qualcomm platforms). Because of this, funny replays sometimes happen, but for budget buyers they are not important. There are a lot of such companies in China. For example, designs of smartphones and tablets on the MediaTek platform develop more than a hundred teams. The competition between them is the toughest. It is to her that we owe to the impressive progress that the devices on the SoC MediaTek demonstrated in 2013. Each design house works in close cooperation with factories, which number in the tens. It is in such a collective work, in many respects resembling the Soviet model, that the success of the Chinese Hi-Tech is forged.
There are design houses that create devices on the Intel platform. But for the whole of China, there are only 3 (three) pieces so far. There is no particular competition between them, because a) the stimulated demand is known by whom demand exceeds supply, and b) for these companies, the most-favored-nation treatment and incentives are enabled. The number of Chinese factories producing ready-made mobile products on Intel, I do not know reliably. However, there are too few of them.
Companies ordering smartphones and tablets on Intel architecture should sell them later. The price competition imposed by the Chinese ODM / OEM is also very fierce now. The product can not be just good, it should be cheaper than analogues. Otherwise, it simply does not fall on the shelves. Intel platform is expensive. That is reasonable, but somewhat more expensive than MediaTek offers and others like them. So, if a company wants not only to create inventories, but also them, it should save on something else ...
All this represents a kind of prelude to the opening of three new mobile devices Digma, working on the Intel platform. Now we will look inside to one smartphone and two tablets, we will see there some things reflecting the situation described above, and we will estimate what can be done with this.
Let's start with the Digma Linx 4.5 smartphone. The device works on Intel Atom Z2460 (single core, frequency up to 1.6 GHz) and Android 4.1 operating system (there is no information about upgrading to 4.2 or higher). The smartphone is equipped with a 4.5 ”LCD display with a resolution of 854x480 pixels, onboard flash memory of 4 GB and 1 GB of RAM. The resolution of the main camera is 5 megapixels, the front one is 0.3 megapixels. There is a slot for microSD card. There is also support for 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n and Bluetooth 3.0. It is planned to sell the device for 6000 rubles.
I will write about user experience separately. In this material we are talking about stuffing.
An autopsy revealed that we have a very budget construction. There is a maximum use of components from other designs: the cables are slightly longer than necessary, it is written on the SIM card slot that two pieces can be inserted, although in fact this is not the case. The power connector is very similar to its fellow Nokia N97, famous for very low reliability. Master Alexander Levchenko suggested that the contacts could withdraw after six months of active use.
In general, the study of the motherboard leaves a feeling of some eclectic design. Pretty surprised with a flash memory module labeled Kingston. As we know, this company itself does not produce chips, but selects others, packs and labels for itself. Thus, the use of intermediary works is evident, which indicates a rush in the manufacture and small volumes of purchases (guys, like Hynix, with small volumes do not work in principle). When studying under a magnifying glass, you can see that some elements are soldered not perfectly straight. This is a sign of small-scale production using manual labor.
On the other hand, if you don’t know for sure, it’s almost impossible to distinguish the electronic filling from its counterpart on the MediaTek platform. The X86 architecture does not show itself.
Putting the smartphone back and take up the Digma Plane 10.1 3G tablet. It looks like an iPad from the face, and from the back it looks like an inexpensive counterpart on the SoC with ARM architecture. If the smartphone is shot down quite firmly, then the tablet is flimsy. The back cover is made of aluminum, but two plastic sidewall walk under the fingers. Especially the left, hiding all connectors - for flash drives, SIM cards, charging and HDMI port. It is believed that with the active use of its rubber feet will soon come off. At least in most smartphones, where the power connector was covered with a plug, this was exactly what happened.
But away from doubt, let's get inside. The back cover rests on snaps, but they are a) very tight and b) because of this, they are not very strong. They withstood one assembly-disassembly cycle successfully, but I would not advise doing this five times.
Inside we are waiting for a rather specific layout. What is strange? First, the battery takes up far from all free space inside the case. This means that they put the ready-made version, and did not make a special version for this model.
Secondly, the main chips are not filled with compound and not fixed. This is not good in terms of impact resistance. One good fall can cost a fallen off processor and a RAM chip above it. By the way, the latter hides a dual-core Atom Z2580 with a frequency of up to 2 GHz.
Thirdly, the size of the 3G module is simply prohibitive. Modern models are less than five times (or even ten). True, we are clearly in the presence of a Chinese product made according to honestly
Fourthly, the principle of fastening connectors (it is the same as in a smartphone), as well as the overall quality of soldering confuses. The speaker is mounted on an honest word and just fell off during the manipulations. Sensor controller for reliability glued with adhesive tape. I am afraid that this is also a small-scale assembly with all the accompanying factors.
If you remove the board and turn it, the word Merlion is found on it. Well, the main distributor of the country and the owner of the Digma brand can be congratulated - there is an element of exclusive development. But, of course, the one-sided design of the board in these times looks peculiar.
We turn to the third tablet Digma EVE 10.1. It is as light as the previous one, and its dimensions are exactly the same. But it works on the dual-core Celeron N2805 with a frequency of up to 1.46 GHz. The architecture used is Bay Trail-M, which has enough power to easily pull Windows 8.1. True, not stripped down RT. It is she who stands on EVE 10.1. This, of course, translates the tablet into a completely different league. After all, when you connect the keyboard and mouse, it becomes almost a real computer. A certain limitation can only be the amount of RAM (2 GB) and a very funny built-in SSD (32 GB). True, you can still add microSD and, at least, double the available volume. But still, in these times it is not enough. However, let's look inside - suddenly there is room for an upgrade?
When issuing a tablet, I was warned several times that this is a preliminary sample, and improved versions will be available for sale. But I confess that I have never seen such a mess inside a high-tech device. There was a feeling that the system did not work, and it was disassembled several times, correcting something right on the living. Talking about the accuracy of the assembly is not even necessary: ​​everything is kind of crumpled, the cables are anyhow, the processor is not fixed. I'd like to believe that everything will be fixed in the serial version, but for now - just like that.
It is impossible to upgrade the RAM - the chips are firmly soldered directly to the board. But you can upgrade the SSD, because it is removable and with a standard M.2 interface. By the way, meet the Chinese brand Foresee. His brainchild looks so-so, but it costs pennies and works pretty well. Also, it is not a pity to extract and put something decently, the benefit of options on eBay abound.
There is also a place for soldering the 3G module on the board. Judging by how much space is left for it, this is still the same monster from Digma Plane 10.1 3G. In the final version of the tablet, the module should be installed as standard.
I was particularly pleased with the ingenious engineering solution to ensure passive cooling. The back cover of the tablet is metal and, probably, it would be logical to remove heat through it. But no!
An unknown Chinese engineer invents a new way and removes heat ... to the screen matrix! Here is a move! Here is this insight! It seems to me that it would be better to just plug in the copper tube and connect the processor to the power controller. Then it would have turned out perfectly at all. Steve Jobs, however, looking at this, would have died a second time. But who cares about it in China?
But if you forget about the stuffing (in the end, not all of us look inside the gadgets), I liked the Digma EVE 10.1 the most. I have been using the Dell Latitude 10 tablet on the Intel Atom Z2760 for more than a year, and I have to admit that its exposed brother works much faster with less weight and a more elegant package. It remains to measure the battery life, but it feels like it is not less. In combination with the 3G module you get a nice device ...
What does what we see say?
If you focus on specific gadgets, the picture is rather sad. In terms of design and assembly is a quiet horror. Even with a fairly affordable price (Digma Plane 10.1 3G and Digma EVE 10.1 will cost 12 and 15 thousand rubles, respectively), I would not recommend buying them.
Abstracting from the quality of the assembly and comparing these devices with their counterparts on the ARM, again, it is not possible to find reasons for rapid optimism. At a comparable price, we get about the same thing, but for a number of parameters (for example, the screen resolution of both tablets is only 1280x800) and worse. So an obvious competitive advantage, apart from the Intel Inside logo on the filet part, cannot be felt.
But if you dress up in an analyst costume, fasten all the buttons and look at the situation strategically, she looks quite encouraging. Anyway, but most of the smartphones and tablets released on the Intel platform were something of a special project. The corporation persuaded the partners, together with them developed the design, helped financially and guaranteed the sale. For the seed, it is normal, but these projects were not business.
On the example of disassembled devices, we see how the Chinese masters themselves finish designs on the architecture of Intel. I would not believe that at least one engineer of the corporation had a hand in this horror and horror. In this case, Intel acts in the traditional role of the manufacturer of the CPU and chipset, combined in the SoC. And then, guys, let's do it yourself. It turns out, as we see, is not very beautiful. But there is no doubt that since the moment of making the samples the design has undergone hundreds of changes. And will undergo more than one thousand. And in a year, you see, they will catch up with their colleagues, who are tackling different things on the MediaTek platform.
Also on the market is about to appear new quad Atom'y Z37xx. In addition to the significantly increased (up to 2.43 GHz) clock frequency, they also have a new graphics core, replacing the older PowerVR SGX 544MP. In theory, there is a good chance to correct the performance situation. The new SoCs are manufactured according to the 22-nanometer technology that is unattainable for ARM. In a situation where the ARM architecture is clearly rested on the frequency limit, and the flagships on it literally burn hands, Intel can finally offer a tangible competitive advantage.
But this is a theory. We will see its embodiment (or not see it) already in 2014. Then, having returned from CES, I will write material about the operating experience of disassembled and safely assembled back gadgets.
Happy, reader! Good and smart year.
PS The author thanks Alexander Levchenko ( www.tech-town.ru ) for help in disassembling devices
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/207832/
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