Google Chromecast Comprised of Essentially 4 Chips

The teardown of Google’s little Chromecast media-streaming HDMI dongle is definitely getting a lot of notice for $35. Just after a few days when Google announced its Chromecast media streaming device, we have already seen what is inside this small dongle. It’s actually a simple device, with a small motherboard assembled inside the plastic case, consisting of four chips on it.

Google Chromecast Teardown

When the Chromecast was open, it was found that it enclosed simple two items: a secured logic board with an HDMI plug attached, and a piece of aluminum that’s the device’s heatsink.

Google Chromecast Teardown

Google Chromecast Teardown

Speaking of its hardware, Chromecast’s logic board is pure simplicity. On the rear side we have, an AzureWave 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FM combo chip (red rectangle) and a Marvell DE3005-A1 SoC (orange). If we turn over to the other side, we see 16Gb Micron NAND flash chip (yellow) and a low-power 512MB DDR3L SDRAM chip, also from Micron (green).

Here is the breakdown of internal components:

• AzureWave AW-NH387 802.11 b/g/n WLAN, Bluetooth and FM Combo Module
• Marvell DE3005-A1 System on Chip
• Micron MT29F16G08MAA 16 Gb (4 GB) NAND Flash Memory
• Micron D9PXV 512 MB DDR3L SDRAM
• DDR3L SDRAM (1.35 V) is a low voltage version of the DDR3 SDRAM (1.5 V)

Source: iFixIt | News Archive