I'm a sucker for this stuff - tearing devices down to find out exactly what makes them tick. I haven't plucked up the courage (or permission!) to break open my Nokia 808 PureView, but thankfully I don't have to, since the nice folks at Chipworks have done it for me/us. Or at least begun the process - some of the chips are unknown to the team and are still undergoing analysis. See below for some tasty photos, quotes.

It's not surprising that some of the chips are needing further investigation, we've known for a while that Nokia's PureView processing chipset was in part a custom design, ditto the magic behind Rich Recording. Plus we also knew that Nokia has been partnering with Toshiba to create the required 41mp sensor, but it's nice to have this confirmed visually.

From the Chipworks 808 tear-down:

The image sensor module is itself quite a piece of engineering (x-ray at right) and contributor to the overall phone dimensions. Not only does it contain the Carl Zeiss optical assembly, and the CMOS image sensor from Toshiba, but there is an Analog Devices chip which is in our labs for identification. The main devices behind the impressive camera functionality of the PureView are:

• Toshiba HES9 CMOS image sensor (CIS), featuring a 41 MP resolution
• Analog Devices AD5814; suspected lens driver solution for the Carl Zeiss lens assembly
• Broadcom BCM2763 multi-media processor, featuring full 1080p Camcorder capabilities

Further analysis on the Toshiba HES9 will be published early next week, as the device is still currently in being analyzed our labs.

Shown below is a die size comparison of the Toshiba HES9 and the Sony IMX145 (the image sensor found inside the Samsung Galaxy S IIIsmartphone).

It'll be interesting to see what Chipworks make of the custom chips - I suspect they'll defy exact classification, being at least partly proprietary Nokia technology.

You can keep track of Chipworks investigation here.