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Items tagged with a4
For a CPU that hasn't seen the light of day, there's a great deal of debate surrounding Apple's A6—and the suggestion that it may not appear until later in 2012. The A6 is a complex bit of hardware; rumors indicate that the chip is a quad-core Cortex-A9 CPU built on 28nm at TSMC and utilizing the latter's 3D fabrication technology. We've previously discussed Intel's own 3D tech; TSMC's is presumably based on similar concepts.The CPU's competitive performance is surprisingly unclear. While the Cortex-A9 is a proven design, Apple's A6 will be one of the first 28nm chips on the market. That...
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Up until now, Samsung has handled all of Apple's CPU manufacturing needs, including the A4 and A5 processor. New rumors, however, suggest that TSMC has been tapped for the company's next-generation A6. Apple hasn't committed to actually purchasing chips at this point, but has handed the Taiwanese foundry what it needs to test product yields. Reuters quotes an unidentified source as saying: "TSMC has got all the authorisation and details ready. Whether Apple puts in a formal order will depend on the yield rate." TSMC has refused to formally comment on the issue but the number of semiconductor...
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It's been 10 years since Microsoft and Nvidia colaborated on a console development project, but a clause in the agreement between the two companies could still have ramifications for the GPU manufacturer. The company's recent FY 2011 report with the SEC states: On March 5, 2000, we entered into an agreement with Microsoft in which we agreed to develop and sell graphics chips and to license certain technology to Microsoft and its licensees for use in the Xbox. Under the agreement, if an individual or corporation makes an offer to purchase shares equal to or greater than 30% of the outstanding...
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It's only been two weeks since Apple and Samsung jointly sued each other for alleged patent infringement, but relations between the two companies have apparently already turned ice cold. Rumors in April suggested that Apple was discussing an arrangement with TSMC (there's been no official confirmation on either side). Gus Richard, an analyst at Piper Jaffray has since proposed that Intel itself may want a piece of this particular pie. It makes strategic sense for both companies. The combination of Apple's growing demand and market share in smart phones and tablets gives Intel a position in these...
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When Steve Jobs launched the iPad 2 recently, he was even more close-mouthed about its enhancements than usual. With NVIDIA's Tegra 2 starting to ship en masse and tablets on the hot seat for 2011, there's a tremendous amount of interest in the iPad 2's nuts and bolts. Much of that interest has focused on the tablet's new A5 processor and upgrading GPU; detailed information is beginning to emerge. While it's too early in the year to know for certain, it looks as though Samsung's pessimistic evaluation of its new Galaxy tablet might be right on target. Breaking Down the iPad 2 The A5 that powers...
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When Apple launched the iPad last April, Qualcomm's Snapdragon QSD8250 was a popular point of comparison. The results, if you were a Qualcomm fan, were a bit disappointing. Clock-for-clock, the 1GHz A4 generally whomped all over the 1GHz Snapdragon. To be fair, this could also be the result of unoptimized software or strict power conservation settings, but neither factor prevented Qualcomm from looking like the red-headed stepchild. The previous generation QSD8650. The 8672 promises an additional core and extra rawr. By Q4 the tables may have turned. In June, Qualcomm shipped its first 1.2GHz dual-core...
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In the months between the iPad's announcement and the product's launch, a great deal of attention was lavished on the A4 CPU at the heart of the new device. Apple has been characteristically tight-lipped about the SoC's design and characteristics, but industry analysts have been determinedly chipping away at the question of what the A4 is—and what it isn't. New information that surfaced this week indicating that the CPU at the heart of the A4 is an Intrinsity-designed 'Hummingbird' Cortex A8. There've been rumors floating around that the Samsung S5PC110 and the Apple A4 are literally identical...
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Intrinsity. It's a company you have probably never, ever heard of in your entire life. And if it weren't for a little company from California called "Apple," you may perish without ever hearing of them, either. But that's not exactly the case anymore, as Apple has just decided to plunk down the necessary funds in order to acquire Intrinsity, much like they did with P.A. Semi a few years back. Apple has been on a quiet acquisition rampage over the past couple of years. They've managed to pick up P.A. Semi (a chip designing company), LaLa (a music streaming company), and now Intrinsity (another chip...
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Heard the latest? The stock world is abuzz over the rumor that Apple might purchase ARM Semiconductor. The rumor apparently began in London and was fueled by the combination of Apple's recent spectacular quarter and the fact that English accents sound so darn sophisticated. The train of logic goes something like this:Apple has built its own custom SoC (the iPad's A4)Apple had a great quarterARM is the industry leader when it comes to designing low power processors for handheld devicesApple will buy ARMBritish Investors: Ruining your carpet since 1895This ironclad reasoning has boosted ARM's share...
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One of the more amusing things about being an IT journalist is that, after you've been writing for awhile, you realize that many of the juiciest or interesting rumors don't appear so much as reappear, travelling in and out of the public eye much as a comet orbits a star. In this case, the AMD+Apple chestnut has hoved back into view, with a long tail of juicy speculation flowing out behind it. The long and short of it is that AMD employees have been seen traveling to and fro from Cupertino, inside Apple's Commuter Coaches. This has fueled speculation on whether or not Apple is evaluating new AMD...
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You can bet that someone, somewhere, is a very unhappy ex-Apple employee now that one of the company's prototype next-generation iPhones was lost (and found) in a Redwood City bar. Whoever found the device (they're understandably laying low) turned it over to Gizmodo, which has spent a significant chunk of time disassembling the device, snapping photos, comparing its internal components to current-generation Apple iPhones, and documenting the various changes. The prototype phone includes the following changes/features: Improved back-facing camera Front-facing video camera Improved Display (possibly...
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Oh my! Could it be? Is it a dream? Is it still April 1st? The video shown here, just a day after Apple's iPad went on sale to throngs of consumers around the U.S., clearly shows a copy of Windows 7 running on a machine that was designed to run only on iPhone OS. Is it a fake? Amazingly it's not, but it's probably not the hack you were hoping for. What you see here is a VNC client that's connected to a nearby MacBook, which enables the iPad to emulate Windows 7. The good news is that this requires little to no hacking expertise in order to get it working, but the bad news is that it's not a native...
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Interest in the iPad is running high on launch day—just in time for photos of a 'naked' iPad to pop up on the FCC's website. The images detail what's underneath the hood of Apple's new tablet and while some of the text was originally grayed out, there are ways to access the original image beneath. The iPad has taken some heat from critics who dismiss it as just a big iPhone Touch; but similar exteriors can be deceiving. The size and higher-end requirements of the iPad necessitate a new internal design, parts of which are shown below. Click for high res viewAbove we've got the back of the iPad and...
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A number of iPad-related stories broke over the last couple days; we've rounded up some of the larger topics into a single news post. First up, graphic designer Paul Threatt took exception to some of Apple's iPad advertisements, several of which purported to show the device running Flash without a hitch. In the screenshot below, the iPad is surfing the New York Times and displaying a slideshow that's only viewable on a browser with Flash installed. Threatt didn't just complain to the company, he filed suit with the FTC, alleging that Apple's ad conveyed false/misleading information about the capabilities...
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