The iPhone 3GS Hardware Exposed & Analyzed

First, two quotes from my review of the original iPhone:

“The issue is that the iPhone interface is just as responsive as a computer, so you inherently expect the sort of performance you'd see on a notebook and it's just impossible on a device like the iPhone."

“I think overall we need a handful of upgrades to the iPhone alongside 3G; we need a faster processor, possibly more system memory, maybe even faster flash. The MLC flash in the iPhone has absolutely horrendous write speeds compared to SLC, which could be holding the iPhone back a bit. I can see Apple introducing a 3G version in about 12 months, addressing many of these issues at the same time.”

Indeed, 12 months after the launch of the first iPhone - Apple did fix the wireless performance issues with the iPhone 3G. Unfortunately, the hardware remained untouched. All of my other complaints in those two quotes remained open ticket items between Apple and I. In fact, things got worse. Here we have what I wrote at the end of my iPhone 3G review:

“Apple must be wary of the direction the iPhone is headed in. While the UI was absolutely perfect for the phone that launched a year ago, today’s iPhone is hardly the same. With easily over twice as many applications on an iPhone today vs. a year ago, performance and navigation have both suffered. The impact isn’t tremendous, but Apple will have to adjust the iPhone accordingly in order to avoid turning the platform into a bloated, complicated mess.”

Two days ago, Apple announced the iPhone 3GS - designed to address one thing: performance. The other half of my complaint in the conclusion of my 3G review, addressing navigation and UI with the new expanded iPhone platform, isn’t addressed by the 3GS. I suspect that in another year we’ll see that. But today, it’s about hardware.

The Impetus

After yesterday's Pre vs. iPhone 3G battery life article I got a few emails from people very close to the chips used in the iPhone 3GS. A couple of exchanges later and I realized it might be time to go a little deeper with the hardware behind the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre.

The Original

The iPhone and iPhone 3G use a system on a chip (SoC) from Samsung. The SoC is a custom part and actually has Apple’s logo on the chip. The SoC houses the CPU, GPU and memory for the iPhone.

The CPU is based on the ARM11 core, in specific it is the ARM1176JZF-S. The CPU runs at 412MHz to save power, although the core is capable of running at 667MHz. The ARM11 CPU is a single-issue in-order microprocessor with an 8-stage integer pipeline. It’s got a 32KB L1 cache (16KB for instructions, 16KB for data) and no L2 cache. The ARM11 CPU in the iPhone also has a vector floating point unit, but thankfully the SoC includes a separate GPU for 3D acceleration. You can think of this core as a very high clocked, very advanced 486. And extremely low power. Under typical load, the CPU core should consume around 100mW. By comparison, the CPU in your laptop can require anywhere from 10 - 35W. Idle power is even lower.

Paired with this CPU is a PowerVR MBX-Lite GPU core. This GPU, like the CPU, is built on a 90nm process and is quite simple. The GPU does support hardware transform and lighting but it’s fully fixed function, think of it as a DirectX 6/7 class GPU (Riva TNT2/GeForce 256). Here’s PowerVR’s block diagram of the MBX:

The MBX-Lite in the iPhone shares the same architecture as the MBX but is optimized, once more, for power efficiency and thus is significantly slower.

I don’t have exact clock speed information for the MBX-Lite in the iPhone but I’m guessing around 60MHz.

Coupled with the CPU and the GPU in the iPhone’s SoC is 128MB of DDR memory, all on the same chip. It’s a pretty impressive little package. You get a CPU, GPU and memory all in a package that’s physically smaller than Intel’s Atom.

Now the 486 came out in 1989 and the original 3dfx Voodoo graphics card came out in 1996. The iPhone’s SoC would be ridiculously powerful if it were running the sorts of applications we had back then, but it’s not. We’re asking a lot from this little core and although it has performed admirably thanks to some clever software engineering on Apple’s part, it’s time for an update.

24" LCD Roundup

Introduction

Most people like to get as much information as possible when it's time to purchase and new, relatively expensive item. Unless you have money to throw around, you typically don't want to overpay for something that underperforms. That's where roundups of a product category can be particularly useful; unfortunately, it's not always easy to get all of the products in one place in order to put together such a roundup. What started as a review of a couple new 24" LCDs eventually grew into what you see here: a comparison of five of the most recent 24" LCDs to hit the market... that we were able to acquire. Note the qualification at the end of that sentence; there are still plenty of 24" LCDs that we have not yet reviewed, but for now we'll take what we can get. Besides, trying to put together all of the information for this article took enough time as it is.

We've discussed LCD panel technologies in the past, and we've often had negative comments for TN panels in particular. The biggest problem with TN panels is that they have far more limited viewing angles, often to the point where a minor adjustment in where you're sitting can affect what you see on the display. However, it just may be that there are benefits to TN panels as well. Look at most specifications and you will find lower response times advertised for TN panels than for competing PVA and IPS panels. Perhaps the biggest advantage for TN panels, however, is price. As the original LCD technology, TN panels have had a long time to mature and manufacturers are far more comfortable with them. Thus, it's little surprise that the prices are usually lower than what we find on S-PVA panels.

It used to be that all 24" LCDs used S-PVA panels, but that has begun to change during the past year. Cost has certainly been an important factor, but regardless we're beginning to see more and more 24" TN-based LCDs. Of the five new LCDs we're reviewing today, three use TN panels while two continue to use S-PVA panels. The latter do indeed cost more, but they also target a different market. Where the TN-based LCDs are intended for the consumer market, the S-PVA LCDs generally target the professional market.

We have a ton of information to cover in this article, so let's get to it. We're going to let the images do the talking for a lot of the areas we normally dwell on, and focus primarily on any noteworthy items that may not be immediately apparent. Also, feel free to consult our short glossary of terms that we use in our display reviews before continuing.

ASUS MK241H Specifications and Appearance

ASUS MK241H Specifications
Video Inputs	DVI with HDCP support HDMI Analog (VGA)
Panel Type	TN (ACI 24A1)
Pixel Pitch	0.270mm
Colors	16.7 million (6-bit with dithering/interpolation?) 130% color gamut
Brightness	450 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio	Up to 3000:1 (Dynamic)
Response Time	2ms GTG
Viewable Size	24" diagonal
Resolution	1920x1200
Viewing Angle	170 horizontal/160 vertical
Power Consumption	<130w>
Power Savings	<2w
Screen Treatment	Matte (non-glossy)
Height-Adjustable	No
Tilt	Yes - 30 degrees back/5 degrees forward
Pivot	No
Swivel	No
VESA Wall Mounting	100mm x 100mm
Dimensions w/ Base (WxHxD)	23" x 18" x 9.6" (WxHxD)
Weight w/ Stand	19 lbs.
Additional Features	Integrated 1.3MP webcam and mic (USB connection to PC required)
Audio	2 x 2W Speakers Audio in, Line out
Limited Warranty	1-year parts and 3-year labor
Price	Online starting at ~$530

ASUS claims an impressive 130% color gamut for the MK241H. That seems rather high, and some of you may be wondering how exactly a display can be higher than 100%. The reason is quite simple: color gamut is usually measured against the NTSC standard, which is getting a little long in the tooth. Modern technology is thus able to exceed that standard, though it requires the use of an appropriate color space in order to do so. Naturally, we'll see whether there's any truth in the 130% claim.

Most of the remaining features are typical of an entry-level 24" monitor. The MK241H includes DVI, HDMI, and VGA inputs and it has built-in speakers (that as you might expect don't sound particularly good, but they'll get the job done if all you need is basic audio). In other areas, the ASUS LCD is more spartan. It lacks height, tilt, and pivot functionality; none of these are absolutely necessary, but we appreciate them nonetheless. The MK241H also lacks any USB ports, but it makes up for this by including an integrated webcam and microphone. That last is one of the few things that sets this LCD apart from other offerings.

The MK241H uses a TN panel, and the biggest drawback to such a panel is the limited viewing angles. TN panels have improved over the years, to the point where many people are no longer bothered by the viewing angle limitation. Still, they are clearly inferior in this area to PVA and IPS panels. Looking at TN panels from below is the worst-case scenario, and in fact they are practically unusable from this angle. However, this should not be a problem for most users unless you tend to work on your computer while lying down.

MSI X58M - Mighty Mouse

MSI X58M - Mighty

Date: May 23rd, 2009 Topic: Motherboard Manufacturer: MSI Author: Gary Key

Buy the MSI X58M Intel X58 1366

	$173.99
	$173.99
	$175.14

We were speaking with MSI a few weeks ago about their upcoming product plans and one item stood out in the conversation. No, it was not the excellent 790FX-GD70 motherboard that has earned our admiration and soon our praise, nor was it the new N260GTX-Lightning Black Edition GTX 260 video card or their updates to the Wind Netbook line. Now, all of these and some we cannot discuss are actually very interesting products for their market segments. However, when we heard X58 and $150 in the same sentence, our ear lobes tweaked and sly smiles developed on our faces. We were told that MSI was hard at work on delivering an X58 motherboard as close to the $150 mark as possible.

We thought this idea was really interesting and certainly made sense when looking at the current Intel product lineup - a lineup that currently means either going Socket 775 and buying into the P45 chipset in the $85~$130 range or smartly bypassing the now defunct X38/X48 lineup for the X58 product along with its processor and RAM upgrade requirements. The mere mention of X58 typically means a $300 ringtone goes off in our minds. Lately, that ringtone has become softer as several boards are available in the sub $200 range including MSI’s X58 Pro and various models from ECS, Foxconn, DFI, and Gigabyte.

Well, MSI tried their best to hit the $150 mark and might still make it if rumored price cuts on the X58 hold true in the near future. The board MSI is targeting into the entry level X58 market is the X58M and it arrives in a uATX form factor with an MSRP of $169.99. It's close to the eventual $150 price point but this motherboard is anything but entry level in many ways. The board features the X58 IOH, ICH10R with six 3Gb/s SATA ports, JMicron JMB363 for an additional 3GB/s SATA port, IDE support, and an eSATA port. Also included from the land of Crabs is the Realtek ALC 889 HD audio codec and RTL8111C Gigabyte LAN. MSI even tossed in IEEE 1394a support along with a great layout and overclocking friendly BIOS backed up by some excellent electrical components.

We are starting to see significant interest in the uATX form factor again in the higher end SFF market. In fact, the Core i7 runs cool enough and draws low enough voltage that a user can design a top performing multi-use system around this combination. We expect to see several new uATX designs when P55 hits the market later this year, if not mini-ITX designs based around it. As such, the MSI X58M joins the DFI LANParty JR X58-T3H6 and ASUS Rampage II GENE in the current X58 uATX market, with others set to join shortly.

We are providing a first look at the X58M today, with the goal of providing enough information on the board to make an informed purchasing decision before we complete our next X58 roundup. So, let’s look at the board and initial performance results and see if we have a Mighty Mouse or Mallrat on our hands.