The 3G was announced at WWDC in June 08 and shipped in July 08. Only the original iPhone had a 7 month wait between announcement and ship date.
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Apple Job Listing Reveals More Powerful ARM Processors and Video Processing for iPhone
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The 3G was announced at WWDC in June 08 and shipped in July 08. Only the original iPhone had a 7 month wait between announcement and ship date.
Looks like a fairly routine hiring in the move up to new processors, shame we have no idea when that move will be.
Or, they already have someone in mind
I once worked for a company where an internal position opened up. I went to the Senior VP who the job directly reported to and told him I was interested. Unfortunately, due to HR rules the job had to be publicly posted for 2 weeks. So, for 2 weeks I sat around and prayed that no one more qualified than myself or someone as qualified but willing to work more cheaply applied. Ultimately, I was hired and it turned out to be one of the best jobs I've had to date.
The bottom line is that Apple may already have an internal candidate but are just looking around "to be sure."
I once worked for a company where an internal position opened up. I went to the Senior VP who the job directly reported to and told him I was interested. Unfortunately, due to HR rules the job had to be publicly posted for 2 weeks. So, for 2 weeks I sat around and prayed that no one more qualified than myself or someone as qualified but willing to work more cheaply applied. Ultimately, I was hired and it turned out to be one of the best jobs I've had to date.
The bottom line is that Apple may already have an internal candidate but are just looking around "to be sure."
I'm hoping there are some immediate processor improvements for the June release. Latency is really starting to kill the intuitive pleasure of using the iPhone. I might upgrade just for a better processor alone.
The only thing you can take from this for sure is that apple is working on a version of the iphone with a Cortex core. It's not clear whether that's the one that's imminent (we believe will release summer this year), or one for next year. There are two completely different Cortex cores, one which the Pre uses (A8), and another which has been released and licensed by companies, but won't see actual silicon until 2010 at the earliest (the A9). The A9 has about 1.5x the performance of the A8, clock-for-clock, and can be had in 1 to 4 core versions.
Looks like I'll be upgrading again this Summer. Hope that cheaper rate plan applies to me. Anyone remember the 1st Gen. early adopters $100 rebate? That was cool.
With all this talk of a tablet and iphone I wonder just how these devices will play together?
Would one have to choose beween MB/ iPhone and Tablet?
Or can I have all three?
Would one have to choose beween MB/ iPhone and Tablet?
Or can I have all three?
This job posting has nothing to do with a position that effects the iPhone shipping this summer. That device is a done deal - already in production (if they do intent to hit WWDC or shortly thereafter).
If anything, I think it simply indicate Apple's fairly obvious path with their mobile OS and associated devices. But again, nothing to do with this summer's device.
If anything, I think it simply indicate Apple's fairly obvious path with their mobile OS and associated devices. But again, nothing to do with this summer's device.
first news about a possible magnetometer supply and now this? does this mean the new iphone won't be coming out in june? it seems like apple is still planning for a new one that won't be out for a while?
or am i missing something?
or am i missing something?
You may be confusing the new iPhone with a new Tablet.
Both devices would run an embedded OS. And depending on the architecture there wouldn't really be a big difference in the OS.
Not necessarily.
There are probably several engineers with similar qualifications already on the team and they are looking to ramp up staffing to provide additional resources to exploit more of this functionality. As the iPhone acquires new features, it may require new engineering talent to handle previously unavailable technologies.
Thus it is possible that we could see limited optimizations in the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 release, plus additional optimizations when a later release is offered (version 3.1 perhaps).
The job listing doesn't indicate what will be in the iPhone 3.0 release, just an inkling of what might be available in the future. In the same way, the acquisition of P.A. Semi was not predictor of when we could expect those technologies to emerge in Apple products.
Although the "NEON" SIMD instructions do indeed speed up the processing of multimedia type applications, it is unlikely they would be used on the iPhone for many things.
All of the mainstream Texas instruments, Qualcomm, etc system-on-a-chips intended for smartphones (including the iPhone ) offload video encoding and decoding to dedicated video encode/decode logic and/or high performance DSPs and have dedicated GPUs for graphics acceleration. These dedicated units are far more efficient at their respective tasks than using the SIMD units on the ARM, and this is how the current iPhone works.
Now the "NEON" SIMD units could probably be helpful for things like video and image special effects and transformations if the iPhone doesn't use a specialized DSP for such things. I guess it all depends on the chip the use.
Some info:
* "ARMv6" is the instruction set of the ARM11 processor core
* "ARMv7" is the instruction set of the new ARM Cortex-series processors, with the single-core Cortex-A8 and multi-core-capable Cortex-A9
The Cortex-A8 is nearly TWICE as fast as the ARM11 core at the same clock speed, and is usually clocked between 600mhz and 1000mhz. The Cortex-A8 core is used as the primary core in T.I.'s OMAP3xxx series and Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform.
The next iPhone will likely use a chip based on the ARM Cortex-A8 core. Chips based on the multi-core capable (and out-of-order processing) Cortex-A9 will not be ready until next year at the earliest.
All of the mainstream Texas instruments, Qualcomm, etc system-on-a-chips intended for smartphones (including the iPhone ) offload video encoding and decoding to dedicated video encode/decode logic and/or high performance DSPs and have dedicated GPUs for graphics acceleration. These dedicated units are far more efficient at their respective tasks than using the SIMD units on the ARM, and this is how the current iPhone works.
Now the "NEON" SIMD units could probably be helpful for things like video and image special effects and transformations if the iPhone doesn't use a specialized DSP for such things. I guess it all depends on the chip the use.
Some info:
* "ARMv6" is the instruction set of the ARM11 processor core
* "ARMv7" is the instruction set of the new ARM Cortex-series processors, with the single-core Cortex-A8 and multi-core-capable Cortex-A9
The Cortex-A8 is nearly TWICE as fast as the ARM11 core at the same clock speed, and is usually clocked between 600mhz and 1000mhz. The Cortex-A8 core is used as the primary core in T.I.'s OMAP3xxx series and Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform.
The next iPhone will likely use a chip based on the ARM Cortex-A8 core. Chips based on the multi-core capable (and out-of-order processing) Cortex-A9 will not be ready until next year at the earliest.
If there is a new iPhone coming in June, its design phase will have been completed some time ago. The lead time on this kind of project is substantial.
Can you guys quit saying this is for the "next-next iPhone" (2010)??? You don't even know that for certain... The listing clearly requests one candidate, leading me to believe it's simply for a fill-in or last-minute hiring needed to expand the team.
There's no way Apple, as cutting-edge as they are, would allow their 3rd generation iPhone this year to have a processor that is automatically outdated by its competition.
I choose to believe this is for the iPhone due this summer.
There's no way Apple, as cutting-edge as they are, would allow their 3rd generation iPhone this year to have a processor that is automatically outdated by its competition.
I choose to believe this is for the iPhone due this summer.
Means they are done developing it
The ads mean Apple is finished with development and have already hired the H1-B immigrants to take over the maintenance. They are laying off the highly paid workers who developed the new iPhone while they run the required ads and join IBM and Microsoft lobbying Congress for the next increase in H1-B allotments, which they will spend on the next next iPhone.
To get a feel for how this plays out, take a look at this article and video.
You can pretend that the developers will move on to the "next great project" if you want to. Plenty of people were willing to believe that those cattle cars were pulling up to showers in the late thirties too.
To save the usual ratholes, I am NOT a member of CWA, I have NOT supported unions in the past and I do not think I support them now. I think it is very ironic that greed and arrogance run unchecked in the industries riding each technological revolution and they always sacrifice the craftsmen.
(Yes, I was one of the craftsmen and no, I did not make it to retirement. That makes me bitter but that does not mean I my observations are all wrong!)
Kind of funny that people are noticing that the existing iPhones are laggy. Before you put your hopes in a faster processor, do some careful analysis.
Do you think your usage is more demanding now? There is no hard drive to get fragged and slow down with age. I would submit that the infrastructure (bandwidth available to users) is getting more strained as the number of subscribers increases and more people use the broadband streaming capabilities of the devices. The airline industry ran the same overbook rate for years, then had to start inventing hardware failures when the ratio of pleasure travelers increased and cancellations dropped. I wonder if you will find that a faster phone does you no good because your infrastructure is being oversold: What does you contract say about QOS? I thought so...
The ads mean Apple is finished with development and have already hired the H1-B immigrants to take over the maintenance. They are laying off the highly paid workers who developed the new iPhone while they run the required ads and join IBM and Microsoft lobbying Congress for the next increase in H1-B allotments, which they will spend on the next next iPhone.
To get a feel for how this plays out, take a look at this article and video.
You can pretend that the developers will move on to the "next great project" if you want to. Plenty of people were willing to believe that those cattle cars were pulling up to showers in the late thirties too.
To save the usual ratholes, I am NOT a member of CWA, I have NOT supported unions in the past and I do not think I support them now. I think it is very ironic that greed and arrogance run unchecked in the industries riding each technological revolution and they always sacrifice the craftsmen.
(Yes, I was one of the craftsmen and no, I did not make it to retirement. That makes me bitter but that does not mean I my observations are all wrong!)
Kind of funny that people are noticing that the existing iPhones are laggy. Before you put your hopes in a faster processor, do some careful analysis.
Do you think your usage is more demanding now? There is no hard drive to get fragged and slow down with age. I would submit that the infrastructure (bandwidth available to users) is getting more strained as the number of subscribers increases and more people use the broadband streaming capabilities of the devices. The airline industry ran the same overbook rate for years, then had to start inventing hardware failures when the ratio of pleasure travelers increased and cancellations dropped. I wonder if you will find that a faster phone does you no good because your infrastructure is being oversold: What does you contract say about QOS? I thought so...
^ You sound like you know what you're talking about... But are you saying this new processor is for THIS UPCOMING 2009 iPhone or the "next next" one???
I think the requisite analysis is much more simple than that: people grow impatient. When the devices were new, users were easily impressed. The perceived performance can change without the actual performance changing.
It's hard to believe that just a few years back that cellphone were basically used to make telephone calls. I know the smartphone has been around a fairly long time, but using it to watch videos, browsing the internet and using it as a GPS unit is relatively new. Apple seems to be trying to turn the iPhone/iPod Touch mobile platform into something that hasn't been defined yet. Almost any day now, I'm scared of possibly hearing that Apple may discontinue it's desktop computer line for some new pocketable mobile device.
I like desktop computers but it seems the world is in some sort of frenzy over computers you can carry around and that's why this netbook craze is in full swing. Maybe Apple can make more money if they corner the market on pocket computers. My Apple desktops always lasted at least four years, but maybe these pocketable devices will have a lifespan of only two years, so Apple can get more product turnover.
I think Apple is still missing the biggest piece of the pie by ignoring the enterprise. Instead of merely looking for more powerful processors, they need to be building some tools to manage tens of thousands of iPhones from a centralized location and put RIM and the BlackBerry out of the picture. What's the video processing going to be used for anyway? Games or looking at HD movies on that smallish iPhone screen? Maybe they're scaling up for that tablet device.
I like desktop computers but it seems the world is in some sort of frenzy over computers you can carry around and that's why this netbook craze is in full swing. Maybe Apple can make more money if they corner the market on pocket computers. My Apple desktops always lasted at least four years, but maybe these pocketable devices will have a lifespan of only two years, so Apple can get more product turnover.
I think Apple is still missing the biggest piece of the pie by ignoring the enterprise. Instead of merely looking for more powerful processors, they need to be building some tools to manage tens of thousands of iPhones from a centralized location and put RIM and the BlackBerry out of the picture. What's the video processing going to be used for anyway? Games or looking at HD movies on that smallish iPhone screen? Maybe they're scaling up for that tablet device.
Then they better get their a** in gear and release something before they fall of the truck!
And with their price policy they'll have to get into enterprise applications. No normal consumer can afford their prices with two year turnaround without being an enthusiast or fanatic.
In the cell phone arena they are right at the right price point with other Smart Phones. What is the point you are trying to make?
This isn't a Mac forum posting room it's for discussing processing power in the iPhone and other Smart Phone devices.