The Apple A4 and A5 SoC are the fruit of the labors from PA Semi and Intrinsity teams. It's kind of doubtful that Apple would have them embark on a totally different ARM design. But integration of components inside the SoC, implementing power savings features, etc, takes a bit of work. To do it, yeah, you'll need some good talent to do that.
They made the right choice for the A5. Of the 2011 class ARM SoCs, no one else has chosen to use PowerVR SGX543 MP2. Samsung, Qualcomm, TI, and Nvidia all have slower GPUs. Only Sony has chosen something even more powerful, but that's a late 2011 delivery if they can meet their schedules and power budget. I wouldn't be surprised if they slip 6 months.
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didn't apple buy PA Semi? What became of that?
The Apple A4 and A5 SoC are the fruit of the labors from PA Semi and Intrinsity teams. It's kind of doubtful that Apple would have them embark on a totally different ARM design. But integration of components inside the SoC, implementing power savings features, etc, takes a bit of work. To do it, yeah, you'll need some good talent to do that.
They made the right choice for the A5. Of the 2011 class ARM SoCs, no one else has chosen to use PowerVR SGX543 MP2. Samsung, Qualcomm, TI, and Nvidia all have slower GPUs. Only Sony has chosen something even more powerful, but that's a late 2011 delivery if they can meet their schedules and power budget. I wouldn't be surprised if they slip 6 months.