How Do Cell Phone Circuit Boards Work?

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Background

Inside a cell phone, a circuit board is one of the main components, along with various other individual sections such as the liquid crystal display (LCD), antennae, microphone, battery, speaker and keyboard. The cell phone circuit board is considered to be, for all intents and purposes, the brain area of the phone. It runs the entire system. There are several components of the circuit board that work together to ensure the proper functioning of the cell phone.

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Computer Chips

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Cell phone circuit boards consist of a few computer chips. There are both digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversion computer chips within the circuit board. They convert audio signals going out from analog to digital, and then they convert the audio signals from digital back into analog. The circuit board's digital signal processor, which is generally rated as having 40 MIPS (millions of instructions per second) functions to conduct calculations of signal manipulation in a very speedy manner. It deals with both compression and decompression of the signals.

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Flash Memory and ROM Chips

The flash memory and ROM components of the cell phone circuit board serve as a storage location for the phone. They store the customizable options of the cell phone, as well as the entire operating system. The power and radio frequency sections of the circuit board work on the phone recharging as well as its management of power. It also controls several hundred FM channels, as well. The RF amplifiers focus on signals that go in and out of the phone's antennae.

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Microprocessor

The microprocessor is in charge of dealing with all the tasks that are to be performed by the cell phone's display area and keyboard. It also focuses on the phone's control signals (to and from the base station) and command options. It helps to interconnect all of the keyboard's main functions.

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