ABI Research Teardown: Motorola Designs Own LTE Chip for Droid Bionic

Research News

New York, New York - 27 Sep 2011

​Motorola started shipping its highly anticipated Droid Bionic less than a couple weeks ago. As part of its Teardown research service, ABI Research has dismantled, analyzed, and tested the device down to the component level. The conclusion?  The second fastest application processor tested to date, a custom LTE chip designed by Motorola, the CDMA portion of the phone from Qualcomm, and some new RF components alongside a filter technology from a decade ago.

According to ABI Research vice president of engineering James Mielke, “Motorola has mixed some of the latest technology with quite a few components now considered the norm and a few that have not been seen in phones for years.” One of the newer components, the OMAP4430, scored well in performance testing but not quite high enough to top the leaderboard. 

Major changes include:

•    LTE modem designed by Motorola

•    A new LTE transceiver from Intel (Infineon)

•    An interesting RF configuration supporting more than the advertised CDMA/LTE support

•    Transition from Nvidia Tegra II to OMAP4430 application processor.

Mielke sums up: “Motorola took a smart approach to introducing new technology by integrating their new components with previously tested technology.  It is pretty easy to surmise what caused the launch delays”. 

ABI Research’s “Motorola Droid Bionic Teardown” report provides detailed photos, process evaluation, and part descriptions for all of the major components such as power amplifier, power management, baseband processor, RF, Bluetooth, GPS, WiLAN, and many discretes. Tying all this information together are unique circuit board photos, performance measurements, cost information, and board area data.

It is one of hundreds of devices and components – phones, baseband processors, power management, RF modules, connectivity components, application processors, sensors, and RF and power management discretes – that are torn down and analyzed in the firm’s Mobile Device Teardown Service. 

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 40+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.