If Apple has in mind launching an iPad Pro then suddenly the A8X and 2 Gb RAM all make sense. Developers need to write app and programs for iPad Pro now, that is, before the launch.
Huh! IPads have been grossly underpowered when it comes to realizing what a tablet could be. A 12' iPad isn't needed to justify more RAM and the A8X.
I find it funny that all the dissing of people wanting a RAM upgrade in the iPads went away the minute it was clear that iPad Air 2 had 2 GB of RAM. The performance advantageous are obvious for anybody with a modest understanding of computer systems.
Many businesses, professionals and power users need a device with more than 9.7" screen and a lot more power than the typical A8 and 1 Gb RAM.
Baloney!!! Anybody that used Safari had reason to want a more RAM. That include Grandma and Grandpa.
Typical consumers will be happy with iPad Air 2 for many years to come. How do you grow iPad sales? By going for new markets and targeting new users.
You may believe that IPad Air 2 is all that people will need for many years to come but history will teach you a far different lesson. Honestly tablets are about where the 6502 was in processor development all those years ago. That is there is an almost unlimited development future for tablets ahead of us. At the rate Apple is going it will only take one more process shrink to get the performance results that best todays better laptops in a tablet Not to mention would be all the other stuff that Apple could potentially integrate into a tablet. We are far from the industry going into Stasis.
Why is the article talking about possible stereo speakers?
iPads already have stereo speakers, do they not?
I would prefer the current speakers to be in landscape instead of portrait, but there are indeed two speakers there, and I believe that it's technically stereo.
Technically, but it quickly stinks when you turn the iPad sideways.
I think it may be another generation or two before they do OS X on ARM simply because they'll likely want to offer some sort of x86 emulation capability, and the AX8 may not have the oomph (two might) Obviously heavy duty programs won't work (the same way G5 optimized programs didn't work in Rosetta), but light duty ones should. Fat binaries would help as well, offer ARM and X86 code with apps on the Mac App Store.
As for Office, Microsoft already has Office on ARM with the version that launched on the a Surface RT, that would work well on a iPad Pro. The main thing it didn't do was macros in Excel, but that can be fixed.
@Wizard69 might want to correct me if i'm wrong about this ...
I did some surfing a while back about x86 code on current Intel chips. To oversimplify what I found:
Current Intel chips do not run x86 CISC code natively.
Rather, they real-time (JIT?) translate it into RISC code which is then executed by the hardware.
RISC is what the ARM chips (and Power Chips) run -- so if Apple (or anyone) could contract the proprietary CISC to RICS translation [hardware? Software?] from Intel -- conceivably, a powerful enough ARM chip could run native x86 code.
I agree. I believe it will not happen since Apple will not let it happen: after all, it would kill off the sales of the MBAir.
MSFT's partners do not realize (yet) that the Surface Whatever-Model could kill of a lot of PC sales. At least, I am sure that's MSFT's wink-wink business model here. They can have it.
Exactly. And not simply because of air cannibalisation.
iOs and OS X will remain solidly separate, as they should. Period end of story. Any other notion is simply ludicrous.
A desktop/notebook os is a desktop/notebook os and a tablet, I should say iPad, os is an iPad OS. Different devices, completely different logic, different apps for both of them, complementary apps, hand off enabled apps, but completely different. The main interface element of one is a cursor and menus, it's great and works great for some things, the other touch and the developers imagination, it's also great and works great with other things.
What I can see happening is apple coming up with some great haptic (or not) keyboard and a trackpad as on MacBooks that replicates multitouch functionality so you can pinch to zoom, rotate, swipe between apps, etc, bring up spotlight on the pro model, gesture to have two apps side by side, maybe, or most importantly, including a home button or replicating this function with a gesture. And that's pretty much all you need for a pro iPad. And it frees up dev to include these gestures on their apps too. Eg, coding tools re-imagined.
Let's face it, you stick a keyboard on to type quickly, no other reason. A trackpad on the keyboard will be of great help to pro users of course. Remove keyboard and you still have Steve's original vision for the most personal content creation and content consumption computer ever, with the most liberal canvas to create an app on. In a lovely size to browse the web, read pdf documentation, get work done, edit movies and photos, manage or browse a db (filemaker will create some lovely stuff for it too), etc. etc. etc.
I expect great things from iPad pro, and with IBM onboard, beats taking care of the sonic staff, Larry and Samsung should expect to be taken to the cleaners.
As they should be. Because instead of google focusing on fixing their privacy shit, and creating a great alternative desktop OS, and getting the major players on board and third party developers offering them an incentive to create there, that is making it safe and secure for them to build a workable business model, and not making it all cloud based for no reason, other than to get more private data on their servers and make el cheap throw away devices (oh and a shit overpriced and under performing retina macbook pro clone), they have been on mission to put every cab driver, bus driver, limo driver, auto manufacturer, out of work. Whatever the f. that's all about, only they know. The world is a strange place behind google goggles.
The iPad pro will be iPad One all over again. It will be the best tablet on the globe by far, as the retina iMac, the mac pro and the retina macbook pros and (soon to be) airs, are the best desktop/notebook computers on the globe, by a large margin. Apple remains razor sharp focused, they have the best product line up ever and with the pro iPad no one in their right mind will be able to say otherwise. They are on a speed train and unless google comes up with an auto driving car real soon, they should do a johnie walker and keep walking to catch up, and good luck with that.
(I also expect to see Redmond finally coming up with their own pro tablet that's worth it's salt, for their niche, even after the 4 iterations it took them to get it right. At some point though they should consider hiring a designer, one good designer will do, they can't afford to have their products, with the band being a prime example continue to look like shit)
Huh! IPads have been grossly underpowered when it comes to realizing what a tablet could be. A 12' iPad isn't needed to justify more RAM and the A8X.
I find it funny that all the dissing of people wanting a RAM upgrade in the iPads went away the minute it was clear that iPad Air 2 had 2 GB of RAM. The performance advantageous are obvious for anybody with a modest understanding of computer systems.
Baloney!!! Anybody that used Safari had reason to want a more RAM. That include Grandma and Grandpa.
You may believe that IPad Air 2 is all that people will need for many years to come but history will teach you a far different lesson. Honestly tablets are about where the 6502 was in processor development all those years ago. That is there is an almost unlimited development future for tablets ahead of us. At the rate Apple is going it will only take one more process shrink to get the performance results that best todays better laptops in a tablet Not to mention would be all the other stuff that Apple could potentially integrate into a tablet. We are far from the industry going into Stasis.
Whenever I read of "why didn't Apple put more / 2 GB DRAM in iPhones", I have to look at the supply side for one of the reasons.
Imagine how doubling Apple's consumption of DRAM overnight would affect the market, and this after Apple is expected to already be at 25% of world consumption of mobile RAM. You don't have to imagine it, it all happened before when Apple was consuming the bulk of mobile memory in the market with the later versions of iPod and early iPhone versions. That said, I expect that the market will be ready for an increase by the release of iPhone 7, and at new nodes and lower power consumption, all necessary for Apple to push thin.
If anything is holding up the industry at this point, it is the relatively glacial pace of battery evolution. Perhaps Elon Musk can push it a bit, but the reality is that there needs to be an expensive and risky effort to get some of the promising technology to the market.
Would Apple attempt a monopsony by bulk purchase agreements for batteries; absolutely, and that is easily accomplished with something that Apple has an excess of; cash.
As someone who has jailbroken his iPad to get extra functionality, I have been looking forward to the iPad Pro or iPad Plus or whatever they plan to call the enlarged tablet. As a matter of fact, rather than upgrading my iPad Air to a 2, I elected to wait to for the larger form factor that I think is inevitable.
On my jailbroken device, I ran a mouse and OS X Experience, a windows manager. Even with the limited integration, I found both to be very useful. I use the iPad with a keyboard but love the fact that I can separate the keyboard and carry a touch based tablet that is still useful in a thinner, lighter form factor without the keyboard. With a tablet that is optimized for power management, not only do I get longer battery life, but I also have a device that can charge with a 5A USB charger or a battery pack that is portable but can still exend my battery life and even recharge. Best of all, with my iPad and its LTE capability I can have internet access anywhere anytime.
Sure there are ways to get the same functionality with an MBA, but I have to make opposite compromises to get the portability. I consider myself a professional in a mid management position at a large corporation and I am able to access the corporate network, run MS Word, Excel, & Powerpoint, access the exchange server with the Mail app as well as secondary OWA apps, get into SalesForce and access other corporate applications. My company is pretty advanced with BYOD and I expect to see our application providers and corporate IT people making the company even more tablet friendly. I can't wait for the release of the larger iPad form factor.
Whenever I see iPad Pro and Surface mentioned in the same sentence, I get terrified, because I hope that the iPad Pro is going to be nothing like the Surface disaster.
I think we see reference to the Surface because people can't express what they need or want any better. they see the Surface as a bigger iPad and don't dwell on the negativity of the implementation.
Why in the hell should Apple copy something that is a flop? If you want a damn Surface, then go buy one! Don't infect Apple with your outrageous and obscene ideas!
It would be no more a copy than the first iPad where copies of MP3 players. People need to realize that Apple has many options available to them when it comes to implementing a larger iPad.
I don't want a damn keyboard on the iPad Pro, and I don't want any kind of stand or kickstand. I just want a bigger iPad. It's fine it can run two apps side by side, but don't try to make it into a damn laptop and I also don't want OS X running on it.
How about this; OS/X is only running in certain modes, the rest of the tie you get iPad functionality.
Either way, I'll be happy, because I'm very satisfied with my iPad Air 2 128GB. If the iPad Pro turns out to be not to my liking, then I just won't get one.
Which brings up the question of why some people think they need to buy everything Apple makes or at least pass judgment upon every device Apple makes. That is probably a completely different discussion anyways.
Whenever I see iPad Pro and Surface mentioned in the same sentence, I get terrified, because I hope that the iPad Pro is going to be nothing like the Surface disaster. Why in the hell should Apple copy something that is a flop? If you want a damn Surface, then go buy one! Don't infect Apple with your outrageous and obscene ideas!
I don't want a damn keyboard on the iPad Pro, and I don't want any kind of stand or kickstand. I just want a bigger iPad. It's fine it can run two apps side by side, but don't try to make it into a damn laptop and I also don't want OS X running on it.
Either way, I'll be happy, because I'm very satisfied with my iPad Air 2 128GB. If the iPad Pro turns out to be not to my liking, then I just won't get one.
Add to that -- we have not yet seen a blueprint of the A8X chip ... 3 CPU cores seems a bit odd ...
It may seem odd but that is only because of what you are use to. Due to the low power requirements though adding but one core actually makes a lot of sense.
It is interesting that we having seen a tear down yet of the iPad and the resultant look at the core of the A8X. Make me wonder what is taking so long here. However the interesting thing with the A8 was how much of the chip area was taken up with logic that has not been identified yet. This is not area dedicated to the compute units which is easy to identify. Given that it is pretty obvious from the photos we do have of the A8 that the CPU cores take up little actual space on the die.
It could be that the Pro iPad uses a more robust A8X or even 2 A8X chips ... or early A9X chips ...
They could just bump up the clock rate. Faster RAM or enhanced cache areas could also help performance with out going into an extensive redesign. The point here is that A8X might already be good enough for iPad Maxi.
i kind of doubt that Apple would do two A8X chips in this device. Mainly because software doesn't currently support such implementations well. I'm doubting that the A8X can support SMP type multi chip installations.
And what happened to those rumors that the Lightening connector is capable of supporting USB 3.1?
Good question? I haven't even looked at the specs to know what iPad Air 2 supports.
And, since Apple designed Thunderbolt -- could it be included in an iPad pro?
It certainly could be included. Such a port would allow one to realize a bunch of cool possibilities for a tablet. One of those possibilities would be a docking station that bridges the tablet to the Mac OS world.
Higher speed connections would allow an iPad to be an additional screen to a Mac ... say for digitizer graphics input for CAD, Medicine or Photography ... or as a customizable touch control surface for video editing ...
To an extent that can be done now. Obviously a faster port helps.
Nice if it had a USB port ... so you could use it as a counter display etc, with proper wired ethernet connection (via USB)
It's happening, mirroring wired from iPad to mac is already here, I am quite sure it's going to be a vice versa thing, with mac mirroring on the iPad pro.
Your mac is the hub. Any mac app, and most 3rd party apps soon will have some sort of counterpart for iOS. Your mac on one side, the iPad on the other side with say mail, notes, safari, today view, any 3rd party app. In addition you can be able to use it as just another screen for x code windows, colour/font panels of all sorts, inspectors, etc. I foresee being able to undock the inspector from iWork as the next step, but most apple or apple related apps have undocked inspectors.
It's incredible to think how all these devices have become the iPad and the iPhone. Of course Steve saw that coming, on what effing planet was everyone else on to not see it coming is beyond me.
"and the glue that is going to make all this happen is the applications".
Fast forward to 2014 and MS is struggling to get a preview counterpart, has a media player that looks like an anachronistic relic from 10 years ago, no iBookstore, no creativity suite for photos/music/movies. And Steve layed everything on a plate for them of where everything was heading.
Hmm...if it comes with a nicely designed stand and keyboard, some new tricks in IOS 8.2 or 9, who knows, it may just be the ideal replacement desktop for small businesses and users who are not tied-in to Winword and Excel. Easier maintenance, less malware/virus threats and cost savings over the long-term.
I know of a friend who wishes to buy a 12" inch iPad just to read his magazine subscriptions on it. But how many people would prefer to consume media on a heavier 12" versus 5.5" plus, 7.9" mini or 9.7" Air?
At the end of the day, it will all depend on softwares and what kind of new uses can be unearthed for new form factor.
No stand and keyboard of course.
It will be extremely light compared to a notebook.
Whenever I read of "why didn't Apple put more / 2 GB DRAM in iPhones", I have to look at the supply side for one of the reasons.
Supply can and has been an issue. However Apple put LPDDR3 into the new Mini so I can't imagine that supply is an issue at this moment in time.
Imagine how doubling Apple's consumption of DRAM overnight would affect the market, and this after Apple is expected to already be at 25% of world consumption of mobile RAM. You don't have to imagine it, it all happened before when Apple was consuming the bulk of mobile memory in the market with the later versions of iPod and early iPhone versions. That said, I expect that the market will be ready for an increase by the release of iPhone 7, and at new nodes and lower power consumption, all necessary for Apple to push thin.
I've gotten to the point I don't care that much about the iPhone. The current models are too big and frankly I have my iPad to turn to for most of my internet usage. The only reason I'm even thinning about upgrading my iPhone 4 is to get faster internet that I can share with an iPad. That to get rid of one data plan. Seems silly to have a a device in my pocket and one in my hand with separate data plans.
If anything is holding up the industry at this point, it is the relatively glacial pace of battery evolution. Perhaps Elon Musk can push it a bit, but the reality is that there needs to be an expensive and risky effort to get some of the promising technology to the market.
Exactly, batteries are a huge problem for many industries. However Musk can't do anymore than the thousands of researchers already working on these issues. The fact is there is massive bucks going into battery research every year with every body looking for that golden formulation that gives us a big boost in performance.
If you track just a bit of the research going into batteries you will see that many promising technologies come and go. In the end you need to arrive at a system that is realistically safe yet energy dense. The billions spent on research every year have yet to come up with the right solution.
Would Apple attempt a monopsony by bulk purchase agreements for batteries; absolutely, and that is easily accomplished with something that Apple has an excess of; cash.
I still think nuclear power is the way to go. What is a little ionizing radiation in your lap vs chronically dead batteries.
You may believe that IPad Air 2 is all that people will need for many years to come but history will teach you a far different lesson. Honestly tablets are about where the 6502 was in processor development all those years ago. That is there is an almost unlimited development future for tablets ahead of us. At the rate Apple is going it will only take one more process shrink to get the performance results that best todays better laptops in a tablet Not to mention would be all the other stuff that Apple could potentially integrate into a tablet. We are far from the industry going into Stasis.
I am not disputing that tablet such as iPad can do a lot more in future.
What I am saying is that Apple needs to offer more screen size such as 12" for some users and more/newer OS services and apps to go with the power.
At the current state, if we are talking about just checking emails, surfing the webs, watching videos, A8X is already overkilled. That is what the whole press is saying.
Personally, I am using an app to create a file system on my iPad, I have an app that sync and back-up my business data to my iPad, I have apps that OCRed my handwriting reliably, I have many apps that help in my business productivity, I do photo editing and play graphic intensive games. I have no doubt an iPad can do a lot of things and more power will be welcome.
To me, whether it's 12", 15" or 18", an iPad is still an iPad. Before mini was out, many people in this forum argued about the need or the lack of need for mini. Now they just co-exist. For iPad to replace desktop and it is possible with more CPU power and more OS services, obviously the screen needs to go bigger too.
@Wizard69 might want to correct me if i'm wrong about this ...
I did some surfing a while back about x86 code on current Intel chips. To oversimplify what I found:
Current Intel chips do not run x86 CISC code natively.
Rather, they real-time (JIT?) translate it into RISC code which is then executed by the hardware.
RISC is what the ARM chips (and Power Chips) run -- so if Apple (or anyone) could contract the proprietary CISC to RICS translation [hardware? Software?] from Intel -- conceivably, a powerful enough ARM chip could run native x86 code.
Your right, Intel processors translate x86 code to an internal format. Its not JIT because that's software translation and extremely slow in comparison.
This hardware translation can be compared to micro code execution of older processors (one instruction results in several CPU actions) but is more advanced.
You found the underlying reason why ARM processors will ultimately triumph over Intel, because hardware translation takes chip area away and eats power.
Comments
I’ll clarify: keyboard+cursor. Single point of data entry.
I’ll clarify: keyboard+cursor. Single point of data entry.
Understood!
I find it funny that all the dissing of people wanting a RAM upgrade in the iPads went away the minute it was clear that iPad Air 2 had 2 GB of RAM. The performance advantageous are obvious for anybody with a modest understanding of computer systems. Baloney!!! Anybody that used Safari had reason to want a more RAM. That include Grandma and Grandpa.
You may believe that IPad Air 2 is all that people will need for many years to come but history will teach you a far different lesson. Honestly tablets are about where the 6502 was in processor development all those years ago. That is there is an almost unlimited development future for tablets ahead of us. At the rate Apple is going it will only take one more process shrink to get the performance results that best todays better laptops in a tablet Not to mention would be all the other stuff that Apple could potentially integrate into a tablet. We are far from the industry going into Stasis.
@Wizard69 might want to correct me if i'm wrong about this ...
I did some surfing a while back about x86 code on current Intel chips. To oversimplify what I found:
Current Intel chips do not run x86 CISC code natively.
Rather, they real-time (JIT?) translate it into RISC code which is then executed by the hardware.
RISC is what the ARM chips (and Power Chips) run -- so if Apple (or anyone) could contract the proprietary CISC to RICS translation [hardware? Software?] from Intel -- conceivably, a powerful enough ARM chip could run native x86 code.
I agree. I believe it will not happen since Apple will not let it happen: after all, it would kill off the sales of the MBAir.
MSFT's partners do not realize (yet) that the Surface Whatever-Model could kill of a lot of PC sales. At least, I am sure that's MSFT's wink-wink business model here. They can have it.
Exactly. And not simply because of air cannibalisation.
iOs and OS X will remain solidly separate, as they should. Period end of story. Any other notion is simply ludicrous.
A desktop/notebook os is a desktop/notebook os and a tablet, I should say iPad, os is an iPad OS. Different devices, completely different logic, different apps for both of them, complementary apps, hand off enabled apps, but completely different. The main interface element of one is a cursor and menus, it's great and works great for some things, the other touch and the developers imagination, it's also great and works great with other things.
What I can see happening is apple coming up with some great haptic (or not) keyboard and a trackpad as on MacBooks that replicates multitouch functionality so you can pinch to zoom, rotate, swipe between apps, etc, bring up spotlight on the pro model, gesture to have two apps side by side, maybe, or most importantly, including a home button or replicating this function with a gesture. And that's pretty much all you need for a pro iPad. And it frees up dev to include these gestures on their apps too. Eg, coding tools re-imagined.
Let's face it, you stick a keyboard on to type quickly, no other reason. A trackpad on the keyboard will be of great help to pro users of course. Remove keyboard and you still have Steve's original vision for the most personal content creation and content consumption computer ever, with the most liberal canvas to create an app on. In a lovely size to browse the web, read pdf documentation, get work done, edit movies and photos, manage or browse a db (filemaker will create some lovely stuff for it too), etc. etc. etc.
I expect great things from iPad pro, and with IBM onboard, beats taking care of the sonic staff, Larry and Samsung should expect to be taken to the cleaners.
The iPad pro will be iPad One all over again. It will be the best tablet on the globe by far, as the retina iMac, the mac pro and the retina macbook pros and (soon to be) airs, are the best desktop/notebook computers on the globe, by a large margin. Apple remains razor sharp focused, they have the best product line up ever and with the pro iPad no one in their right mind will be able to say otherwise. They are on a speed train and unless google comes up with an auto driving car real soon, they should do a johnie walker and keep walking to catch up, and good luck with that.
(I also expect to see Redmond finally coming up with their own pro tablet that's worth it's salt, for their niche, even after the 4 iterations it took them to get it right. At some point though they should consider hiring a designer, one good designer will do, they can't afford to have their products, with the band being a prime example continue to look like shit)
Huh! IPads have been grossly underpowered when it comes to realizing what a tablet could be. A 12' iPad isn't needed to justify more RAM and the A8X.
I find it funny that all the dissing of people wanting a RAM upgrade in the iPads went away the minute it was clear that iPad Air 2 had 2 GB of RAM. The performance advantageous are obvious for anybody with a modest understanding of computer systems.
Baloney!!! Anybody that used Safari had reason to want a more RAM. That include Grandma and Grandpa.
You may believe that IPad Air 2 is all that people will need for many years to come but history will teach you a far different lesson. Honestly tablets are about where the 6502 was in processor development all those years ago. That is there is an almost unlimited development future for tablets ahead of us. At the rate Apple is going it will only take one more process shrink to get the performance results that best todays better laptops in a tablet Not to mention would be all the other stuff that Apple could potentially integrate into a tablet. We are far from the industry going into Stasis.
Whenever I read of "why didn't Apple put more / 2 GB DRAM in iPhones", I have to look at the supply side for one of the reasons.
Imagine how doubling Apple's consumption of DRAM overnight would affect the market, and this after Apple is expected to already be at 25% of world consumption of mobile RAM. You don't have to imagine it, it all happened before when Apple was consuming the bulk of mobile memory in the market with the later versions of iPod and early iPhone versions. That said, I expect that the market will be ready for an increase by the release of iPhone 7, and at new nodes and lower power consumption, all necessary for Apple to push thin.
If anything is holding up the industry at this point, it is the relatively glacial pace of battery evolution. Perhaps Elon Musk can push it a bit, but the reality is that there needs to be an expensive and risky effort to get some of the promising technology to the market.
Would Apple attempt a monopsony by bulk purchase agreements for batteries; absolutely, and that is easily accomplished with something that Apple has an excess of; cash.
"A few rounds in the dirt" is a sure way to get them dancing....
On my jailbroken device, I ran a mouse and OS X Experience, a windows manager. Even with the limited integration, I found both to be very useful. I use the iPad with a keyboard but love the fact that I can separate the keyboard and carry a touch based tablet that is still useful in a thinner, lighter form factor without the keyboard. With a tablet that is optimized for power management, not only do I get longer battery life, but I also have a device that can charge with a 5A USB charger or a battery pack that is portable but can still exend my battery life and even recharge. Best of all, with my iPad and its LTE capability I can have internet access anywhere anytime.
Sure there are ways to get the same functionality with an MBA, but I have to make opposite compromises to get the portability. I consider myself a professional in a mid management position at a large corporation and I am able to access the corporate network, run MS Word, Excel, & Powerpoint, access the exchange server with the Mail app as well as secondary OWA apps, get into SalesForce and access other corporate applications. My company is pretty advanced with BYOD and I expect to see our application providers and corporate IT people making the company even more tablet friendly. I can't wait for the release of the larger iPad form factor.
The one product I would most like to see.
Whenever I see iPad Pro and Surface mentioned in the same sentence, I get terrified, because I hope that the iPad Pro is going to be nothing like the Surface disaster. Why in the hell should Apple copy something that is a flop? If you want a damn Surface, then go buy one! Don't infect Apple with your outrageous and obscene ideas!
I don't want a damn keyboard on the iPad Pro, and I don't want any kind of stand or kickstand. I just want a bigger iPad. It's fine it can run two apps side by side, but don't try to make it into a damn laptop and I also don't want OS X running on it.
Either way, I'll be happy, because I'm very satisfied with my iPad Air 2 128GB. If the iPad Pro turns out to be not to my liking, then I just won't get one.
My thinking exactly.
Great minds.
It is interesting that we having seen a tear down yet of the iPad and the resultant look at the core of the A8X. Make me wonder what is taking so long here. However the interesting thing with the A8 was how much of the chip area was taken up with logic that has not been identified yet. This is not area dedicated to the compute units which is easy to identify. Given that it is pretty obvious from the photos we do have of the A8 that the CPU cores take up little actual space on the die. They could just bump up the clock rate. Faster RAM or enhanced cache areas could also help performance with out going into an extensive redesign. The point here is that A8X might already be good enough for iPad Maxi.
i kind of doubt that Apple would do two A8X chips in this device. Mainly because software doesn't currently support such implementations well. I'm doubting that the A8X can support SMP type multi chip installations. Good question? I haven't even looked at the specs to know what iPad Air 2 supports. It certainly could be included. Such a port would allow one to realize a bunch of cool possibilities for a tablet. One of those possibilities would be a docking station that bridges the tablet to the Mac OS world. To an extent that can be done now. Obviously a faster port helps.
Nice if it had a USB port ... so you could use it as a counter display etc, with proper wired ethernet connection (via USB)
It's happening, mirroring wired from iPad to mac is already here, I am quite sure it's going to be a vice versa thing, with mac mirroring on the iPad pro.
Your mac is the hub. Any mac app, and most 3rd party apps soon will have some sort of counterpart for iOS. Your mac on one side, the iPad on the other side with say mail, notes, safari, today view, any 3rd party app. In addition you can be able to use it as just another screen for x code windows, colour/font panels of all sorts, inspectors, etc. I foresee being able to undock the inspector from iWork as the next step, but most apple or apple related apps have undocked inspectors.
Let's hear the master elucidating:
Lovely, how the video begins:
We are just getting started! What is our vision?
Read here too:
http://www.cultofmac.com/27810/the-dawn-of-apples-dominance-digital-hub-strategy-revisited/
It's incredible to think how all these devices have become the iPad and the iPhone. Of course Steve saw that coming, on what effing planet was everyone else on to not see it coming is beyond me.
"and the glue that is going to make all this happen is the applications".
Fast forward to 2014 and MS is struggling to get a preview counterpart, has a media player that looks like an anachronistic relic from 10 years ago, no iBookstore, no creativity suite for photos/music/movies. And Steve layed everything on a plate for them of where everything was heading.
No stand and keyboard of course.
It will be extremely light compared to a notebook.
If you track just a bit of the research going into batteries you will see that many promising technologies come and go. In the end you need to arrive at a system that is realistically safe yet energy dense. The billions spent on research every year have yet to come up with the right solution.
I still think nuclear power is the way to go. What is a little ionizing radiation in your lap vs chronically dead batteries.
You may believe that IPad Air 2 is all that people will need for many years to come but history will teach you a far different lesson. Honestly tablets are about where the 6502 was in processor development all those years ago. That is there is an almost unlimited development future for tablets ahead of us. At the rate Apple is going it will only take one more process shrink to get the performance results that best todays better laptops in a tablet Not to mention would be all the other stuff that Apple could potentially integrate into a tablet. We are far from the industry going into Stasis.
I am not disputing that tablet such as iPad can do a lot more in future.
What I am saying is that Apple needs to offer more screen size such as 12" for some users and more/newer OS services and apps to go with the power.
At the current state, if we are talking about just checking emails, surfing the webs, watching videos, A8X is already overkilled. That is what the whole press is saying.
Personally, I am using an app to create a file system on my iPad, I have an app that sync and back-up my business data to my iPad, I have apps that OCRed my handwriting reliably, I have many apps that help in my business productivity, I do photo editing and play graphic intensive games. I have no doubt an iPad can do a lot of things and more power will be welcome.
To me, whether it's 12", 15" or 18", an iPad is still an iPad. Before mini was out, many people in this forum argued about the need or the lack of need for mini. Now they just co-exist. For iPad to replace desktop and it is possible with more CPU power and more OS services, obviously the screen needs to go bigger too.
Your right, Intel processors translate x86 code to an internal format. Its not JIT because that's software translation and extremely slow in comparison.
This hardware translation can be compared to micro code execution of older processors (one instruction results in several CPU actions) but is more advanced.
You found the underlying reason why ARM processors will ultimately triumph over Intel, because hardware translation takes chip area away and eats power.