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miked112

macrumors newbie
Aug 4, 2010
10
0
Lots of possibilities here. Assuming they're moving to 28nm, it definitely means they're adding stuff if it's getting bigger...

Almost fell off my chair reading this post...actual informed and intelligent speculation, rare indeed on this forum. Very interesting observations, thanks for posting.
 

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,277
31,385
Agreed. Whilst the new icons aren't really my cup of tea, I'm sure that a) They will evolve from what we see now to the final master release and b) By that time they will probably have grown on me anyway.

When I first saw the leaked iPhone 5 I thought 'Urgh', but by the time it came out I was used to it, and weirdly by that time the reverse effect was true - the 3.5" display of old looked somewhat 'squashed'.

It's amazing how the mind works.

And not to forget iOS 7 was redesigned in about 6 months. That's crazy. Apple could have waited until iOS 8 to show off the redesign but having another year of the iOS 6 UI would have been a big mistake. If this is the direction Apple is going, better to get it out there and perfect over time. If, for instance Apple wasn't able to redesign mail and calendar the way they wanted to in time, what's stopping them from providing updates to those apps after iOS 7 ships? I'd love to see more frequent updates on the software front.
 

Hattig

macrumors 65816
Jan 3, 2003
1,457
92
London, UK
The size of the processor package says nothing about the size of the die within.

What it does say is that there are likely to be more I/Os into/out of the SoC.

This means that Apple could have integrated more functionality into the SoC directly that requires its own I/O.

But you can't say anything definite about the die within, whether or not it is larger, how many cores it has, and so on and so forth.

All you can do is speculate - if it's 28nm maybe there are four cores, and/or the cores run faster, and/or there are big.LITTLE companion A7s (so small they barely affect the die size, but they save a lot of power), and/or the GPU is bigger, and/or the memory controller is wider/faster ...
 

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
The size of the processor package says nothing about the size of the die within.

What it does say is that there are likely to be more I/Os into/out of the SoC.

This means that Apple could have integrated more functionality into the SoC directly that requires its own I/O.

But you can't say anything definite about the die within, whether or not it is larger, how many cores it has, and so on and so forth.

All you can do is speculate - if it's 28nm maybe there are four cores, and/or the cores run faster, and/or there are big.LITTLE companion A7s (so small they barely affect the die size, but they save a lot of power), and/or the GPU is bigger, and/or the memory controller is wider/faster ...

My thoughts as well, and good point about the package. However, one can assume the package is no bigger than it needs to be in such a tight environment, so barring I/O changes, it would indeed point to a bigger die.

Almost fell off my chair reading this post...actual informed and intelligent speculation, rare indeed on this forum. Very interesting observations, thanks for posting.

Glad you appreciate it. I enjoy trying to keep people informed with realistic expectations. A few other posters regularly post content just as good as mine, if not better, with the above quoted poster being a good example.
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,401
2,835
I think the logic board has gotten narrower. Notice how the A6 has room for a triple row of caps to its left? The new logic board only has room for a single row (caps being placed longways, granted). Also, the back of the iPhone 5 logic board has the Hynix memory module spanning the whole board. Now since the board is thinner, it's been forced to rotate 90 degrees to fit since it's longer than it is wide.

Good point. I've played a bit more with overlaying the images, and I think you might be right. Narrower board, however slight, means a bit more room for a larger battery maybe. :)
 

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
Good point. I've played a bit more with overlaying the images, and I think you might be right. Narrower board, however slight, means a bit more room for a larger battery maybe. :)

Perhaps. If they do implement lean core(s), coupled with a larger battery, there could be a significant battery boost, especially if they do make the screen change to IGZO.
 

D.T.

macrumors G4
Sep 15, 2011
11,050
12,460
Vilano Beach, FL
Does anyone else ever take a step back to just be _amazed_ at the computing power of something about the size of a stick of gum?
 

3282868

macrumors 603
Jan 8, 2009
5,281
0
Oh, another "leaked" image on a [possible] part for the next iPhone, which seems very similar to the current parts used in the iPhone. Um, great!
 

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
716
Cork, Ireland.
All that being said, I think the premise of the article is wrong. I think the logic board has gotten narrower. Notice how the A6 has room for a triple row of caps to its left? The new logic board only has room for a single row (caps being placed longways, granted). Also, the back of the iPhone 5 logic board has the Hynix memory module spanning the whole board. Now since the board is thinner, it's been forced to rotate 90 degrees to fit since it's longer than it is wide.

Dunno, it seems to me there's more space/capacitors on the right-hand side, so maybe the A6 is just being realigned?

On the back-side, you have a point. I tried a quick copy, rotate and paste (not very scientific, or engineeriffic!) to see if the Hynix chip would fit if rotated 90 degrees, and it juuust about does, but the image is too low res to accurately judge it.
 

Jamo12

macrumors 6502
Mar 23, 2009
326
202
Ohio
I'd be happy if they pulled a new MacBook Air and made the processor much more power efficient (basically a Haswell update) and increase the battery capacity by 15%. If it mirrors the increase of the MacBook Air, I would be one happy bunny
 

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
Dunno, it seems to me there's more space/capacitors on the right-hand side, so maybe the A6 is just being realigned?

On the back-side, you have a point. I tried a quick copy, rotate and paste (not very scientific, or engineeriffic!) to see if the Hynix chip would fit if rotated 90 degrees, and it juuust about does, but the image is too low res to accurately judge it.

Yes, there is a double row on the right, but you still have 3.5 rows versus 4 rows.

As for the Hynix chip, components usually have some minimum distance from the edge of the PWB for manufacturing tolerances and produceability.
 

cmChimera

macrumors 601
Feb 12, 2010
4,273
3,762
Why do you need a quad core iPhone? :confused:
I don't. I WANT a quad-core iPhone. I'm not even sure why this is a question. Why did I want a dual-core iPhone? Because it's better. Why did I want a retina display on my Macbook Pro? Because it's better. A better question would be why wouldn't I want it.
 

neuropsychguy

macrumors 68020
Sep 29, 2008
2,424
5,777
Weird, I'm sure Apple made improvements in virtually every single aspect of iOS 7 over iOS 6, and I'm also sure I logged into MacRumors, not twitter.

Must be my computer playing up. Restarting now...

Clearly you must be running a version of iOS 7...
 

JulianL

macrumors 68000
Feb 2, 2010
1,661
659
London, UK
Perhaps. If they do implement lean core(s), coupled with a larger battery, there could be a significant battery boost, especially if they do make the screen change to IGZO.
Lets hope so although the reports on the first implementation of big.LITTLE that I've seen, namely a comparison of battery life between the Samsung S4 Snapdragon and Exynos parts, looked weird with the Snapdragon having better battery life. Maybe the tests were run badly.

In any event one of my hopes for the next iPhone is that Apple do put a big focus on extending battery life and I'd love to see them do a really effective implementation of big.LITTLE or something similar. If the next iPhone is going to be pretty much the same physical packaging with internal modifications then making really significant advances in battery life would be a really nice stick for Apple to use to beat on its competitors.

I suspect that you're right on the main board getting narrower so if the rumours of the same screen size and physical home button are true then that might (and I hope does) mean a bigger battery although it could also mean that they could maintain the same battery capacity but use the extra width available for the battery to make it, and hence the whole phone, even thinner.

I'm not saying that I want a thinner iPhone, I'm just saying that if Apple have narrowed the main board to allow more width for the battery then making the phone thinner while maintaining the same battery capacity is another possibility open to them.

- Julian
 

nikaru

macrumors 65816
Apr 23, 2009
1,123
1,396
I don't. I WANT a quad-core iPhone. I'm not even sure why this is a question. Why did I want a dual-core iPhone? Because it's better. Why did I want a retina display on my Macbook Pro? Because it's better. A better question would be why wouldn't I want it.

More cores, dont make necesarry a better cpu. They can make a octa-core cpu but if it is not frecuency efficient and energy optimized, your applications will remain slugish and you will be left without battery in hours. The CPU power is not defined only by the number of cores, the same way the camera is not defined only by the number of megapixels it has. There are fundamental aspects of design of the CPU which are even more important than the number of cores. Yeah, galaxy s4 has better benchmarks results than the iPhone, so what? Whats is faster in terms of user experiance?
 

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
Lets hope so although the reports on the first implementation of big.LITTLE that I've seen, namely a comparison of battery life between the Samsung S4 Snapdragon and Exynos parts, looked weird with the Snapdragon having better battery life. Maybe the tests were run badly.

That's not a fair apples to apples because the process is different and the cores are different (A15 versus custom Krait).
 

cmChimera

macrumors 601
Feb 12, 2010
4,273
3,762
More cores, dont make necesarry a better cpu. They can make a octa-core cpu but if it is not frecuency efficient and energy optimized, your applications will remain slugish and you will be left without battery in hours. The CPU power is not defined only by the number of cores, the same way the camera is not defined only by the number of megapixels it has. There are fundamental aspects of design of the CPU which are even more important than the number of cores. Yeah, galaxy s4 has better benchmarks results than the iPhone, so what? Whats is faster in terms of user experiance?

I'm not ignorant as to CPUs. I'm working under the assumption that a quad-core A7 would be just as efficient if not more than the current A6. Which means I simply have a more powerful iPhone that continues to have great battery life and performance.
 
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