Name that Ware November 2010

The Ware for November 2010 is shown below.

This is another ware in the series of small-context photos of “everyday” hardware. I think there’s enough present here in the image to unambiguously identify at least the type of ware. We shall see!

17 Responses to “Name that Ware November 2010”

  1. Steve Shockley says:

    Perhaps a laptop BT board? Looks a little too narrow to be USB.

    • Steve Shockley says:

      Never mind, they’re chips on the top left and bottom right, at first I thought they were background.

  2. Paul Roukema says:

    The footprint looks like a TSSOP EEPROM, such as http://atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=3929 . The connections to the pads appears consistent with pin 1 being in the upper left, with thick traces to the ground pin (pin 4) and VCC (PIN 8).

    Such I2C eeproms are commonly used for the SPD data on memory modules. Given the dense packing of the surrounding BGA memory IC’s ( At least that’s my guess for the black items above and below). I would guess this is a rather high density SODIMM.

    • Hugo says:

      The distance-controlled routing of that track coming up through the via in the center strongly suggest it’s a DDR/2/3 DIMM of some kind. Such DIMMs have an I2C memory for SPD (which contains timing information etc) as Paul said above.

  3. roby says:

    PC ram module PCB with unpopulated IC?

  4. Chris says:

    SOIC-8 adapter?

  5. tz says:

    TSSOP, but more likely flash (or sram) using SPI, not I2C.

    • tz says:

      Obviously pins 4 and 8 would be power and ground, and either 3 or 7 are shorted – possibly a WP or CS that isn’t required.

      • tz says:

        Any of the Microchip memories have that pinout 23K256, 25LC1024, 25VF064C – they have a /hold or /reset on pin 7 which is probably going to VCC.

  6. k87 says:

    i’m getting the DDR2 or DDR3 SDRAM feeling. It was mentioned that this is a common product and there should be enough information to um-ambiguously determine what it was. Thats why i’m ruling out something like a SPI-EEPROM module or a zoomed in section of something like the inside of a phone or motherboard. I don’t think such a close in shot would provide enough information to identify the product or class of such specific products. I’m thinking this is something REALLY common that we’ve all have seen many times.

    We could be zoomed in on the middle of the DIMM module where they sometimes throw in circuitry for generating that reference voltage thats about halfway between a power rail. forgot what it was called. Something to do with the circuitry used to receive the differential pairs for the clock and those other signals whose names escape me. (not the data and address lines.)

    Thats why i’m thinking a desktop DIMM module. The two edges of the chips (probably BGA. no leads visible) neatly stacked next to each-other. length matched vias with traces not going to the two unpopulated pads, And common enough to be able to be identified with this little information.

  7. tz says:

    It could be a DDR ram stick, but also compact flash or an SD card or even USB – the BGAs could be flash chips.

  8. Dan says:

    Other things that have narrow PCBs: perhaps it’s an LCD backlight inverter?

    • Dan says:

      oh wait no – the track leading away from the left column, second from bottom pin goes off what I thought was the edge – so the back stuff must be a component on the PCB – I thought it was packing foam around it :)

      So on second thoughts not necessarily a narrow PCB :\

  9. Tim says:

    Unlikely to be flash, because of the tuned (serpentine) trace. That indicates a much higher-speed, synchronous part. I’m on board with SDRAM of some type; other than the leadless parts, I don’t see much to indicate speed/generation.

  10. Yogesh says:

    is that a GSM/SIM card slot?

  11. Greeeg says:

    Definitely a SODIMM module, however due to the gap between the two BGA RAM chips I’m thinking that it’s a memory module from a laptop.
    The 8 pin IC would have to be a TSSOP package. From the size of the vias compared with pad sizes.
    Looking at my DDR2 Laptop RAM I believe that this would have to be DDR3 (More dense than DDR2) and it couldn’t be DDR1 as very few DDR1 modules used BGA packages.
    Looking at RAM I have on hand the have similar routing on the 8pin part. Bottom-left two pins tied together. Large trace leaving the top-right, probably a supply pin.