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Apple's A4 Processor is Based on Cortex A8, Not A9?
- Thread starter t0mat0
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I understand that Apple in no way spent a billion dollars developing this chip. The iPad is very expensive for the power it has, and the Apple fanboys, despite all the evidence refused to believe that Apple did not spend 1 billion dollars developing this CPU, because to them it justified the price. They were using it as a defense for the people who were saying that the ipad was too expensive. So I'm interested to see what they would say now. If those who were saying that Apple indeed spent a billion developing this chip read this story, I would imagine that they will immediately start saying that in no way in hell did Apple spend that much, and that someone would have to be stupid to believe that.
I shows no lag on iPhone Apps that are actually designed to run on a less powerful processor.
Faster/more powerful processor may be used to design iPad specific apps that explot the extra horsepower. It's more and more clear to me that this iPad revA is a joke from Steve Jobs: I'm going to give you fanboys an stretched iPhone, without some of iPhone capabilities, and you are going to buy it just because it has al Apple logo on it.
Oh boy have they changed since then
Stuff still goes to and fro, but now it's pipelined superscalar out-of-order speculative cached prefetched multi-core to and fro
Or because what I really want is a big iPod Touch that has pay-when-I-want-it Internet. I'll buy it because it is exactly what I want.
Who said the iPad is for photo editing? Oh, the design guy. Sorry, the iPad isn't for Photo editing; you, like many others, are projecting your desires onto it. That's why you are disappointed.
The first iPad is a big iPod Touch. It uses an optimized, but older processor, that will probably perform as well or better than the latest processor thrown into a new phone by some company that puts it in their handset because it is the latest processor.
Once you realize the iPad is just a big Touch, you'll be a lot happier and can hopefully not try to make it into your own personal "jesus device".
To me its all about the battery time. As long as this is maximised who cares about the rest, I mean its mainly a web and emailing device with your digital life.
Who's saying the iPad is too expensive? Nobody I've heard. And that's Apple fanatics and haters alike. Nobody expected this to be delivered at $500 for the base model.
If anything, this report might help clarify some things. If Apple figured out how to base the A4 on the A8 ARM chip, crank up the clock to 1GHz and get performance up to par while saving some money on materials costs (helping keep the costs down), then more power to them! (no pun intended).
No surprises here I guess. I think Apple made a deliberate choice here : more cores or more mhz (for equal battery life). I guess at this point more mhz creates a better user experience in the device as is, with the software that is available today.
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9700/5.0.0.344 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/146)
Wonder how much much cheaper it would be for Apple to produce these chips over the other?
Wonder how much much cheaper it would be for Apple to produce these chips over the other?
Inside Out Outside In
I waited for yet another discussion about specs.
The Apple A4 chip. Nobody besides people that are employed at Apple that actually work in the particular devision knows what it has inside really. Speculation about the architecture of this particular peace of hardware is not helping anybody!
Most importantly i do not even care about what kind of chip runs my whatever device as long as it does it well. Seriously i am a techie kind of person and a looked at spec sheets ever so long of my live but recently all i care about are the following:
Does it work well
Does it meet my needs
Does it fulfill my expectations
Does it accomplish the dedicated tasks
I understand that some Users will not be able to refer to the iPad as a device meeting their needs but fact is, if it does not meet your needs it is not a device for you.
Potential future buyers of the iPad will care about is if it works well. And as i can see in Videos featuring the iPad it seems to do so.
Sure thing is nobody reviewed it yet so lets wait and see what happens in a few weeks time.
All i wanted to say is that the Clock speed is not important as long as the whatever thing does what IT IS SUPPOSED to do (image editing like on a desktop machine is not one of the dedicated tasks of the iPad as i see it. Watching video is a task, surfing, reading, emailing, looking at fotos,games, music and so on that is stuff iPad was designed for! And as far as the Videos of the iPad show (not Apples own product video) it is F.A.S.T doing that kind of stuff!)
I waited for yet another discussion about specs.
The Apple A4 chip. Nobody besides people that are employed at Apple that actually work in the particular devision knows what it has inside really. Speculation about the architecture of this particular peace of hardware is not helping anybody!
Most importantly i do not even care about what kind of chip runs my whatever device as long as it does it well. Seriously i am a techie kind of person and a looked at spec sheets ever so long of my live but recently all i care about are the following:
Does it work well
Does it meet my needs
Does it fulfill my expectations
Does it accomplish the dedicated tasks
I understand that some Users will not be able to refer to the iPad as a device meeting their needs but fact is, if it does not meet your needs it is not a device for you.
Potential future buyers of the iPad will care about is if it works well. And as i can see in Videos featuring the iPad it seems to do so.
Sure thing is nobody reviewed it yet so lets wait and see what happens in a few weeks time.
All i wanted to say is that the Clock speed is not important as long as the whatever thing does what IT IS SUPPOSED to do (image editing like on a desktop machine is not one of the dedicated tasks of the iPad as i see it. Watching video is a task, surfing, reading, emailing, looking at fotos,games, music and so on that is stuff iPad was designed for! And as far as the Videos of the iPad show (not Apples own product video) it is F.A.S.T doing that kind of stuff!)
Newer processor usually run cooler than older processors. I doubt a 1ghz A8 processor is going to run any cooler than a 1ghz A9 processor.
Here are the shoking news: Its not based on anything its Apples own CPU and it cost them a billion to develope! And we will never learn how it works and whats actually inside because you cant really reverse engineere a little CPU. And guess what? All that is one of Apples reasons of developing the A4: The secrecy!
Please tell me which part do I have "absolutely no idea" about?
1.) Most new smartphones, by the end of the year, will use A9
2.) The iPad has 5x more pixels than an iPhone
3.) The iPad is 67% faster based on mhz alone (600 vs 1000) if it uses an A8, not taking into account Apple A4 custom enhancements
4.) A9 is faster than A8
5.) Your comment adds nothing to the discussion and is quite rude
Well, at least we can all agree that #5 is absolutely true.
The iPad has an IPS display which is standard in the design industry (though currently not able to be properly calibrated).
The iPad has a camera connection kit for importing from USB and SD cards.
The App Store has many apps available for photo editing.
Photo editing is perfect on the iPad because most photo software is buttons, dials, switches, etc. Dodging and burning with a Wacom? Dragging levels and curves? Or even one step further--working in a darkroom with your hands. Being out in the field. Ultra-portable?
So let me get this straight. You're not projecting anything onto the iPad yourself in saying that it is a simple device that doesn't do much? In addition, the iPad shouldn't be used for things that you don't see it capable of doing? Good luck with that. This device is the future of computing. I fully expect within 10 years I'll be doing all my design work on a more powerful, feature-laden variant of this device. The App Store will show us things we never thought possible. It might as well have the best hardware so that developer's imaginations can run wild.
Some people need to think outside the box with this thing. Wow. The possibilities are endless.
Also, I'm not disappointed in the device itself, overall. I just hope that it uses fast hardware. What is wrong with that?
You know, over the weekend there was a Tsunami warning in Hawaii and Japan. Huge swells were predicted. Yet, with the best scientific tools available government meteorologists missed the mark by a long ways.
Now here we have people claiming the A4 is really a modified A8 with even less facts to go on other than some anonymous sources. And the anti-iPad crowd is going nuts because while they were definitely not going to buy the iPad before, now they are double definitely not going to buy it.
Honestly, all that matters is that the iPad works smoothly. Reports from the demo booth after the announcement were that it does. I can't imagine Apple staking its rep on laggy hardware. Too much is at risk here for Apple. But really, we'll just have to wait for the real reviews, and our own hands-on tests to be sure. Until then take a chill.
Now here we have people claiming the A4 is really a modified A8 with even less facts to go on other than some anonymous sources. And the anti-iPad crowd is going nuts because while they were definitely not going to buy the iPad before, now they are double definitely not going to buy it.
Honestly, all that matters is that the iPad works smoothly. Reports from the demo booth after the announcement were that it does. I can't imagine Apple staking its rep on laggy hardware. Too much is at risk here for Apple. But really, we'll just have to wait for the real reviews, and our own hands-on tests to be sure. Until then take a chill.
I'm still failing to see what is factually incorrect about the iPad having 5.12 times more pixels than an iPhone.
I'm not even talking about the PowerVR right now, which btw I had acknowledged in my second post in this thread:
I know that the video component plays a huge role. But how much can it compensate? Anyone have hard numbers?
Not an issue?
I concur with talkingfuture. This is largely not an issue. It would, of course, be nice to have a faster processor. For those old enough to remember, it would have been nice to not pay over $100 for 1 Megabyte of RAM memory.
But... in the end, Moore's Law will hold true. If you want faster, wait 18 months, and you will see it! For now, if you want a tablet, buy it. I am fairly certain that Steve and team did not make us wait a decade for this thing to put out a bad piece of equipment.
I concur with talkingfuture. This is largely not an issue. It would, of course, be nice to have a faster processor. For those old enough to remember, it would have been nice to not pay over $100 for 1 Megabyte of RAM memory.
But... in the end, Moore's Law will hold true. If you want faster, wait 18 months, and you will see it! For now, if you want a tablet, buy it. I am fairly certain that Steve and team did not make us wait a decade for this thing to put out a bad piece of equipment.
With a TBDR fillrate is supposed to be saved with all the culling before rendering bits. I wonder about the memory bandwidth. Especially if the iPad has the same or similar layout as the iPhone. Sharing VRAM and system RAM can be seen as a hold back.
You bet it is. Would you want something like this powered by one of the Motorola chips found in a 1980's Macintosh? Or perhaps an i7 that will eat through battery?
...except for the lack of pressure sensitivity, the presence of a glossy screen, the fact you'd have to use your (huge) fingers to do detailed work...
Atm, we're just getting some details regarding the CPU itself, with nothing about the PowerVX alongside it.
And the others above are getting pissy because you're relating 3D game performance with CPU processing power. I'll assume you know that most, if not all 3D is done in OpenGL which happens on the GPU. Therefore 5.12 more pixels has nothing to do with 67% more CPU clock.
Ah...I see.
You mean the same guys that said: Sorry, your first gen iPhone won't do MMS (for wahtever reason).
Actually I'd prefer the stylish first gen iPhone over that cheapo plastic 3GS anytime - but Apple crippled that one by intent to make you upgrade.
So actually they did the same with the iPad. Waht a surprise indeed.
<Disclaimer> Will nevertheless get an iPad, as soon as they hit 199 bucks with a bundled 3G data plan.</Disclaimer>
I noticed lag I see even on the iPhone 3Gs when viewing some larger PDF documents.
Watch when Steve opens the email attachment which holds a map of the valley, when it first loads you can see the video fill certain parts slower than others, as well as zoom in with the out of focus text, until the iPad completes the zoom to clear and sharpen the display.
Let me try to explain what he meant.
Apple has made a custom piece of silicon to match the needs of the iPad. They alone make this decision, not you. Apple knows what is needed to drive this device, seeing as they designed and developed the iPad from the ground up.
Making arbitrary comparison between A8 and A9 is superficial. Having the latest chip in the iPad doesn't specifically make the user experience better. You do not have the knowledge that Apple does as to what it takes to drive this device, versus the compromises that might ensue, such as price and battery life.
So, to sum it up in layman's terms for you, the A9 is not "more better".
Very true. Look at the Droid, for instance. It uses the same processor as the iPhone, but because it's driving more pixels, it can get laggy even when doing simple things such as typing.
Oh, if that's all it is then, how's it better than a Touch, which does the same things but fits in your pocket?