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Apple TV "single core" A5 actually has two cores, one is off - Page 2

post #41 of 53
4/11/12 at 3:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelligent View Post

This is an assumption on the parts of ChipWorks. It may well be correct, or not. One problem with this premise - it is based on another assumption: that Apple is producing millions of smaller versions of A5 (APL2498) and are picking off some of the defective ones to use in AppleTV. So Apple is already manufacturing this 32 nm A5 in sufficient volume that one specific defective species is sufficiently large in quantity as to supply another product line? Pretty big assumption.

What you are saying is also right and I think no one but Apple and the vendor that fabricated them know about it.

However, if I am not mistaken, TSMC is the supplier of these devices. Based on the experience that I have had with TSMC their yield is usually low! and we were not even working at 32nm! Their yield should be much lower at 32nm but if they can recycle it like the way they have done it, then it would be worthwhile!
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post #42 of 53
4/11/12 at 3:48pm
Speaking of jailbreak -- how IS that 2012 ATV jailbreak coming along?!

More importantly: WHERE IS THE ATV APP STORE?!
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post #43 of 53
4/11/12 at 8:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrFreeman View Post

What you are saying is also right and I think no one but Apple and the vendor that fabricated them know about it.

However, if I am not mistaken, TSMC is the supplier of these devices. Based on the experience that I have had with TSMC their yield is usually low! and we were not even working at 32nm! Their yield should be much lower at 32nm but if they can recycle it like the way they have done it, then it would be worthwhile!

I understand your point and it's quite plausible. But, regardless of yield, if these AppleTV A5s are "rejects", then it means Apple is already producing many more "non-rejects"? I think it's more likely Apple is using AppleTV to test/fine-tune the 32 nm process - overall yield, cost of manufacturing, etc.
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post #44 of 53
4/11/12 at 8:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelligent View Post

But, regardless of yield, if these AppleTV A5s are "rejects", then it means Apple is already producing many more "non-rejects"?

Which are being used in the iPad 2 (2,4) model. Note a side effect of this could be much improved battery life assuming that all other aspects of the HW is kept the same.

"Blank! BLANK! You're not looking at the big picture!"

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"Blank! BLANK! You're not looking at the big picture!"

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post #45 of 53
4/12/12 at 2:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post

Which are being used in the iPad 2 (2,4) model. Note a side effect of this could be much improved battery life assuming that all other aspects of the HW is kept the same.

Ah, I missed that. Should take up my own advice about reading the whole article.
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post #46 of 53
4/12/12 at 3:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by macinthe408 View Post

Waiting for the obligatory lawsuit: "My Apple TV has a bad core."

Don't eat the bad core of the Apple!

Social Capitalist, dreamer and wise enough to know I'm never going to grow up anyway... so not trying anymore.

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Social Capitalist, dreamer and wise enough to know I'm never going to grow up anyway... so not trying anymore.

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post #47 of 53
4/12/12 at 3:45am
I believe we'll see these chips with two working cores on the next iPhone. The A5X with its 4 graphics core was needed for the iPad due to its huge screen resolution. For the iPhone, a die shrink of the A5 should be enough, assuming the screen resolution remains the same even if the screen size grows.
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post #48 of 53
4/12/12 at 5:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sflocal View Post

If Intel pulled a stunt like IBM does, the market would riot.

Intel has done it in the past:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Intel...0-157035.shtml

And they're still doing it now:
https://retailupgrades.intel.com/Pag...?Name=Benefits

In this particular case, the "upgrade" causes the CPUs to use a different clock multiplier. It also causes some of the CPUs to gain an additional MB of cache.

AMD has also obstinately "binned" its processors (recovering some revenue for genuinely defective devices by locking out the defective features and selling the feature-reduced device at a reduced price). But in fact, it has been suggested that AMD has also occasionally locked down some otherwise 100% functional CPUs, in situations where current demand for the lower-priced models outstripped their supply of units with genuine defects.

I'd be shocked if Intel didn't also practice some sort of "binning" on many of its other product lines as well (certainly with units that exhibit some genuine defects, but I wouldn't be surprised if they also did it with devices that didn't have any real defects), but it hasn't been publicized as openly.
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post #49 of 53
4/12/12 at 7:58am
Clever stuff from Apple.

If this is standard one can certainly look towards a $50 OS upgrade sometime in the future. One that enables two cores..
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post #50 of 53
4/12/12 at 9:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by aBeliefSystem View Post

Clever stuff from Apple.

If this is standard one can certainly look towards a $50 OS upgrade sometime in the future. One that enables two cores..

Doubtful.
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post #51 of 53
4/12/12 at 9:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by aBeliefSystem View Post

Clever stuff from Apple.

If this is standard one can certainly look towards a $50 OS upgrade sometime in the future. One that enables two cores..

N~o. These chips are included because the cores are faulty. They're not "turned off".
PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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post #52 of 53
4/15/12 at 8:54pm
If the shrinking process lets manufacturers get more peocessors per waffer why is that the prices keep the same?? Even raising! I whould really want to know why Intel keeps that fixed price model? Now you see xeons going up to 4000 dollars!!! It's outrageous!! Why even a diference of .2 ghz cost 500 dollars on a xeon? Another really bad thing about this is that as far as I understand all cpus are born fast by design, then crippled down to slower speeds and blocked so nobody can overclck them to the speed of the fastest model in the lineup. As far as I know a core i7 @ 2.0, 2.2 or 2.4 are the same processor but the slower models get a speed limit. Wtf?
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post #53 of 53
4/18/12 at 5:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelligent View Post

I understand your point and it's quite plausible. But, regardless of yield, if these AppleTV A5s are "rejects", then it means Apple is already producing many more "non-rejects"? I think it's more likely Apple is using AppleTV to test/fine-tune the 32 nm process - overall yield, cost of manufacturing, etc.

Valid point indeed...
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