Teardown of Apple's A6 processor finds 1GB RAM with 2 CPU & 3 GPU cores - Page 2

I guess that will take 1 or 2 more years.
OS has to be 64bit.

By the way, that might be biggest issue of that Win8 foray. Too early. ARM 64 bit will not sell on Taiwanese dairy markets for another year or so.

Eventually, all tablets will weigh much less, and be as thin as the mechanical needs for sturdiness allows.

I do a lot of reading on mine, and I've noticed the differences in weight between the models. Normally, I would agree with you about weight. But it's when I'm lying in bed, holding this up that the weight becomes a problem. Then I'm constantly shifting it around. Otherwise it bites into my hand if I hold in the same position for too long.

So I'm thinking about buying a Mini (assuming there will be such a thing) mostly for reading while in bed. Though, when having to stand in a crowded subway car it would also be an improvement.

We might see the A6. As long as Apple isn't having manufacturing issues, this would make the A6 cheaper in the long run. If they want to simplify their manufacturing, the A6 gives them advantages.

thataveragejoe: What has getting information on how a competitor's cpu work have to do with turning exynos into a copy from Apple?! The two has nothing to do with each other.

Knowing how a competitor's chip works: Priceless
Designing your own chip while knowing the performance profile of your competitor: Also priceless.

The programs they use for designing chips work very well. But they aren't the most efficient at laying out wires, or parts. I use similar programs to design circuit boards. Sometimes the program routs wires all around the board, which is not good.

You can allow the program to place components on the board as well, though you do have to come up with a general placement yourself first for major items. But again, it's not as efficient as when you do it.

It's is so complex that it can boggle the mind when dealing with six, eight, and boards with even more layers, so that you need a program to do most of the work. The same with a very complex chip that isn't regular in design such as memory chips.

It's like a town. If its set up in a perfect rectangle, with streets at exactly 90° to each other, then it's easy to route. But if everything's at odd angles, and need to go around ponds, lakes rivers, hills, etc, then it gets harder. Think about doing that on five or six levels, with streets connecting through the levels, and you get some idea of the problem. Programs will connect everything, but not always in the most efficient way. If you have to take a longer road, you use more gas a more direct route sill save that, as well as get you there sooner.

Since we know how a program is going to place, and route in a circuit, we can tell by looking at the circuit whether its been done manually, or by computer. Now, when they say its been done manually, they don't mean completely manually, because that would be impossible these days.

That's the concept.

it's certainly possible and with a lower clock rate would would likely be more power efficient at the same performance rating. Still, I'm heavily leaning toward an A5 because the Touch has it and I bet that device will sell in less quantity than the rumoured iPad Mini.

 

"Kludge"? Because it's like a fraction of a mm thicker (imperceptive to almost everyone), to drive a 4X higher density deisplay, much more powerful videocard, more RAM,  much better camera, etc...Jesus Christ. Some of you really have no perspective. Yes, the new iPad will likely be a bit lighter/thinner. But that doesn't mean the current one is a "Kludge". What they managed to fit into that enclosure is no small feat, and it's still an engineering marvel with the Retina display and performance. 

 

Apple will probably have done similar to other companies processors, and will expect and accept it being done to theirs.  TSMC, for example, won't use this teardown report to analyze the A6, they will already be doing one of their own, in a lot more detail, looking at specific materials used for thinks like the interconnects and dielectrics, just in case Samsung (the manufacturer of the A6) have come up with some sort of funky manufacturing technique that TSMC haven't thought of.

 

Everyone who makes chips has the ability to do this sort of analysis, since they often need to do it on their own devices to track down yield problems.  I never stopped being amazed by the ability of the analysis guys to come back with one specific defect that they could conclusively link to my machines.

It's always possible. But the Touch has no real competition,as Samsung isn't advertising their competitor. The mini will be entering a crowded market, and will need to at least equal the Nexus 7 and surpass the new Fire.

I think it's a toss up. I'd prefer to see the A6.

 

It will surpass the Nexus 7 either way. I own it. Even t hough it's one of the smoother ones, the thing is still sluggish and laggy. My 4S does a better job loading webpages. I have no doubt a potential iPad mini will demolish it in responsiveness. 

with apple having manually designing the cpu, your design is now producted in a manner that does not allow you to claim "i did not know it was a copy...the computer just spit it out" ...

not only that, they would be the pariah of the foundry business... no would use them because they steal peoples work...

but then because you need an arm licence to use and a licence to design the cpu... my guess is if samsung was caught stealing apple's cpu design they would lose the licence to manufacture... design... and any samsung product that has an ARM processor. it would be unsellable.

tsmc, gf, and charter all strictly, and seriously protect the ip of others (i am guessing here but if they did not, i can not see how they would remain in business).

...all pure speculation on my part, but i certainly hope these foundarys have the honor to Segregate their customers designs and IP.

"ARM-y"

 

Cheers

So what country is this 'son of a chip' made?

Where I can buy ion blaster?

This is extremely useful to have the hardware divide. It also means that in the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S code can be more quickly made obsolete. I'm not sure if compiler changes would also allow the iPhone 3GS to be made obsolete before the other two. Hopefully not as it would mean removal of the 3GS compiler code next year. Removing 320X480 support is maybe another way they can do it.

forget that, Hardware divide is just ARM7-m and probably means it is seamless. SO screen resolution changes might be the better route when discontinuing future xcode support.

The USA.

Earth. What part of your brain do thoughts come from?

Correction, Texas.

Actually, a Korean colony in Texas.

Well, sometimes I wish Texas weren't part of the USA, but it still is.

Just for fun : does anybody know the scale of the (grey) chipworks picture ?