Fitbit Alta Teardown ENGLIH b d

Posted: April 18, 2016

Contributed b Mandi Gingerich, Julia Elvidge and Jim Morrison

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The new, more-stlish Alta tness tracker

If ou look through our recent blog histor, ou will quickl see evidence of Chipworks interest in
the latest in wearable technolog. o, naturall, when such a big name in the market as Fitbit
announced a change of pace with the new, more-stlish Alta tness tracker, we were excited to
take a look.
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At 15 mm wide, the Alta is both slimmer and lighter than its predecessors and with its man
interchangeable band options and the gloss color OLED screen, it is a thing of beaut. While it is
marketed as a much as a fashion accessor as a tness tracker, it is not just a bracelet (actuall,
Fitbit seems to be careful to call it a wristband), it does have a function too. Lets have a closer
look inside to see what makes this new Fitbit tick.

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Analsis-FB406-square.jpg) (http://www.chipworks.com/sites/default/les/04Fitbit-

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What is not inside the Alta

Before we open it up, we alread know what we will not nd in this device. Unlike its predecessor
and price-twin, the Fitbit Charge, the Alta does not include a heart rate monitor or altimeter.
Otherwise, it appears to be quite similar.

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The majorit of the data required for the Alta to perform its duties comes from the
TMicroelectronics LI2DH 3-axis accelerometer. Using Inside Technolog
(http://www.chipworks.com/competitive-technical-intelligence/overview/inside-technolog), the
industr's largest semiconductor databse, we can see that this linear accelerometer belonging to
the femto famil is also found in the Charge, Charge HR, and urge products, as well as other
wearables b Garmin and Mist. Updated continuousl as new products hit the market and
covering virtuall ever region of the world, Inside Technolog (http://www.chipworks.com
/competitive-technical-intelligence/overview/inside-technolog) gives ou a comprehensive
view of how man sockets our competitors have won, in which products, for a fact-based picture
of our market position, learn more here (http://www.chipworks.com/competitive-technical-
intelligence/overview/inside-technolog).

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inside-technolog-shot.jpg) (http://www.chipworks.com/sites/default/les/08Fitbit-
Alta-Teardown-Chipworks-Analsis-FB406-TM-LI2DH.jpg)

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No touch controller

If ou have read reviews of the Alta, man of which describe the color OLED as a touch screen,
ou might also be expecting to see a touch controller. Our teardown conrms there is indeed no
touch controller, indicating that Fitbits description of a tap screen is quite purposeful. This tap
function is likel driven b the Altas onl sensor, the accelerometer.

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accelerometer.jpg)

To snc and communicate with the devices that will displa the users data, the Alta again
emplos a TMicroelectronics part. The BLUENRGCP is a Bluetooth specication v4.0 compliant,
slave single-mode Bluetooth low-energ network processor.

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Analsis-FB406-BLUENRGCP.jpg) (http://www.chipworks.com/sites/default/les
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TMicroelectronics found in the Fitbit Alta

Also provided b TMicroelectronics are a BALF-NRG-01D3 ultra-miniature balun and the

TM32L485JC microcontroller (MCU). The balun has been spotted once before in the AU
VivoWatch, but the MCU is new to Chipworks. TMicroelectronics describes TM32L4 MCU
series devices as ultra-low-power and exible, citing an ARM Cortex-M4 core with up to 1
Mbte of Flash memor and up to 128 Kbtes of embedded RAM.

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B now, ou ma be noticing a pattern: the Alta seems to be a huge win for TMicroelectronics,
providing four of the ve silicon devices we have identied. The Inside Technolog
(http://www.chipworks.com/competitive-technical-intelligence/overview/inside-technolog)
screenshot below shows the sole exception: the Maxim, a wearable-optimized Li-ion power
management IC.
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TMicroelectronics-MAX-MAX14676f.jpg)

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Chipworks Patent Analtics and the Fitbit Alta

Diving even deeper into Chipworks expertise, we have also produced a landscape of Fitbits
patent portfolio using Chipworks Patent Analtics (http://www.chipworks.com/patent-
intelligence-services/overview/patent-analtics-services) olution Powered b KMX. These
patent landscapes are topological representations of groups of patents. The are generated
using the words within the patent text. Peaks in the topolog represent a group of patents that
are ver similar. The words on top of this peak are the three most used words in the text of these
patents and represent the technolog area but are generated automaticall (so the ma seem
out of order to us sometimes). The distance between peaks is a representation of how dierent
two technolog areas are. If the are close together, the are similar. If the are far apart, the are
ver dierent.

Fitbit wearables are considered part of the IoT (Internet of Things) sector. The wristbands are
sensor sstems which are snchronized to the cloud. Inspecting the landscape, we see the core
of their patent portfolio consists of wireless pairing to provide messages about biometric goals
(peaks starting with message and weight) sounds like Fitbit! The ve spokes of the
landscape surrounding these core patents address ve dierent domains: how their product
looks (ornamental); sensor technolog (altitude); architecture of wristband biometric
measurement sstems (ephemeris); higher level services using GP (geo); and the heart rate
sensor light (heart).

(http://www.chipworks.com/sites/default/les/Chipworkstbitpatentlandscape.jpg)

ince the beginning of its consumer availabilit in earl March, Fitbit reports
(https://investor.tbit.com/press/press-releases/press-release-details/2016/Fitbit-hips-
More-Than-1-Million-Fitbit-Blaze-and-1-Million-Fitbit-Alta-Devices-in-First-Month-of-Availabilit
/default.aspx) that over 1 million units of the Alta have alread been shipped, again emphasizing
the size of this win for TMicroelectronics. This success is evidence of the trend noted b Wired
in their review of the Alta (http://www.wired.com/2016/02/tbit-alta-is-another-wearable-for-the-
high-fashion-crowd/), that 2016 will be the ear wearables develop a fashion sense, noting
everone from Fossil to Huawei has taken an interest in guring out how to make technolog
beautiful. At Chipworks, we look forward to seeing the inner beaut of these devices shine
through too.

w amsung tops an updated Chipworks Broadcoms Wireless IoT Business IP

analsis of the IP of IoT (/about-chipworks (/about-chipworks
/overview/blog/samsung-tops-updated- /overview/blog/broadcom-
chipworks-analsis-of-the-ip-of-iot) wireless-
iot-business-ip)

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