Inside the Amazon Kindle
Warranty Warning You may be tempted to crack open your Kindle and take a look at what
makes it tick, but keep in mind that doing so will violate the warranty
for the device. |
At its most basic level, the Kindle is just a specialized portable computer. It has many of the bits and pieces you'd expect to find in any computing system. It also has a couple of elements that set it apart from your average computer.
Most of the Kindle's components attach directly to a circuit board. The circuit board acts as the foundation for electronic circuits in the Kindle. Most of the components are inseparable from the board. The various chips on the board are microcontrollers for the keyboard, scroll wheel, USB port and other interfaces.
The brain of the Kindle is an Intel PXA255 processor. The PXA255 is a 32-bit processor that handles all the commands and applications on the Kindle. The processor is an example of Advanced RISC Machine (ARM) architecture. The ARM series of chips have power-saving features that make them ideal for mobile electronics.
The Kindle has an EVDO wireless modem. The acronym EVDO stands for Evolution Data Only or Evolution Data Optimized, depending upon whom you ask. Unlike a Wi-Fi card, the EVDO modem taps into cell phone networks to transmit and receive wireless signals. The Kindle uses Sprint's cellular wireless data system.
A 256 megabit Flash memory chip provides storage memory for the Kindle. Of the 256 megabytes, 180 are available as storage [source: Turner]. A smart card port allows users to insert an SD card for additional storage capacity. The Kindle also has two Infineon 256 megabit Mobile-RAM chips and a Spansion 512 megabit chip. The 512 megabit chip stores the Kindle's firmware boot-sector information [source: AKI].
The Kindle draws its power from a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. Unlike most of the Kindle's components, you can access the battery without taking the case apart. The rubberized grip on the back of the Kindle covers up the battery. According to Amazon, the battery will provide power to the Kindle for up to a week without the need for recharging as long as the wireless function is switched off. Amazon made the battery accessible so that users can replace the battery if it fails.
The Kindle uses a Linux-based operating system. According to hardware hacker Igor Skochinsky, it uses the Das U-Boot bootloader to initialize its OS. Skochinsky experimented with a Kindle and discovered several interesting commands, shortcuts and hidden applications within the Kindle's OS. For example, he discovered that if you press the Alt key, Shift key and M key while in the Home menu, the Kindle will open up a game of Minesweeper [source: Skochinsky].
Beneath the circuit board you'll find the Kindle's electronic paper screen. We'll take a closer look at this screen in the next section.
