Inside the Amazon Kindle

 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 include the processor, memory, USB connector and touch-screen interface.

The Kindle draws its power from a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery. According to Amazon, the battery in the base Kindle can last up to four weeks without recharging, and the batteries in the Paperwhite and Oasis may last up to six weeks. Actual battery life depends on how much you use the light, wireless and Bluetooth.

All versions of the Kindle use 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 original Kindle will open up a game of Minesweeper.

Above the circuit board on most Kindle models, you'll find the Kindle's electronic paper screen.

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