Evidence of Quad-Core Chips Shows Up in iOS 5.1 Betas

[anthonymoody]

This argument over "first" and "copied" is not only juvenile, it's facile. All that matters, as Apple has proven over and over and over and over and over and over (am I making myself clear?), is the overall user experience. Whether the next iPad has two cores or 20, if history is a guide, the overall user experience should be better than that of any competing product.

Why the Fandroids can't get past this is beyond me.

 

[chrmjenkins]

That's one of biggest BS I've read, even from you. Those are largely dictated by the component suppliers not by the OS. Do you say Samsung followed LG because LG released a dual core phone first? No, LG just happened to coincide to release the first phone when Tegra2 chips were becoming available to the phone makers.

As for the topic of quad core, it's actually pretty interesting because I thought Apple might stay dual core but instead go with faster A15 cores unlike nVidia who chose to release quad core early but with the common A9 cores. I wonder if they can do both at the same time?

Do you mean a quad core A15? That would be bananas. I can see apple doing heterogenous processing before ARM's sanctioned solution hits, though. I fully expect A6 to be a dual core A15 or a die shrunk A5. Not really expecting quad to be honest.

A lot of work is presently under heavy development and testing for ARM's chipsets, OpenCL C99 and LLVM/Clang. LLVM/Clang 3.1 is going to be a beast leaving it clear that you will never touch GCC again, unless you're a GPLv3 zealot.

Kind of over my head since I'm a hardware guy, but thanks for an explanation

 

[Peace]

If that graphic is correct and true then Apple IS working on a quad-core chip.

And since it's from IOS 5.1 I'm guessing it's an ARM based chip.

They could also be testing it for the supposed Apple Television.

 

[Superken7]

No, core.3 stands for Quad-Core. There is no such thing as "core.2"

there probably is. My guess is that it is probably not checking the number of total processors, but *which* processor. If true, that means in a quad-core SoC you would see assembly code referencing core.0, core.1, core.2, and core.3, any of those.

 

[chrmjenkins]

If that graphic is correct and true then Apple IS working on a quad-core chip.

And since it's from IOS 5.1 I'm guessing it's an ARM based chip.

They could also be testing it for the supposed Apple Television.

It means they are testing a quad core chip. It could be a vanilla sample from ARM. It doesn't signify certain intent to use one in the immediate future.

 

[Peace]

It means they are testing a quad core chip. It could be a vanilla sample from ARM. It doesn't signify certain intent to use one in the immediate future.

I agree completely.

 

[apolloa]

Apple was one of the ... iPad was released - you know what I mean, mate. The tablet PC as we know it. Not PCs in the form of a tablet.

Yeah. Let's all ... was the first. - yes, Apple was the first. Sure, there were other mobile OS', but we are talking here about operating systems specifically created for smartphones. Not dumbphones.

And yes, I checked the subject of the thread. It's all about some rumours. You are stating these rumours as facts: there is the difference.

Symbian was specifically made for smartphones just as much as iOS is! FACT! Google it if you don't believe me.
Oh and iOS was designed for a tablet device FIRST before a smartphone. That's from what I have read, they designed it for tablets but feel the market wasn't ready so they put it in a phone first.

 

[fertilized-egg]

Do you mean a quad core A15? That would be bananas. I can see apple doing heterogenous processing before ARM's sanctioned solution hits, though. I fully expect A6 to be a dual core A15 or a die shrunk A5. Not really expecting quad to be honest.

Yeah, to be honest I don't really think Apple will be able to get a A15 quad chip. Since Apple will most likely use Samsung for making A6, we can probably get a hint of what's coming by looking at Samsung's future portfolio. Samsung have announced a 2Ghz A15 dual core and a lower clocked A9 quad core Exynos chips, but no A15 quad core yet. So I'm expecting a A9 quad core chip like Tegra3.

Another question is the GPU. Will Apple up the ante even more by using a faster GPU?

Symbian was specifically made for smartphones just as much as iOS is! FACT!

Very true but iOS completely changed the game by introducing a few very important changes - mobile browser capable of displaying site in full form, usable multitouch interface and an emphasis on centralized app store made for easy discovery and purchase of apps. Symbian was a capable OS but it got ancient fast once iOS made the splash followed by Android and WP7. I'm a former Symbian S60v5 user. It was atrocious.

 

[chrmjenkins]

Yeah, to be honest I don't really think Apple will be able to get a A15 quad chip. Since Apple will most likely use Samsung for making A6, we can probably get a hint of what's coming by looking at Samsung's future portfolio. Samsung have announced a 2Ghz A15 dual core and a lower clocked A9 quad core Exynos chips, but no A15 quad core yet. So I'm expecting a A9 quad core chip like Tegra3.

Another question is the GPU. Will Apple up the ante even more by using a faster GPU?

Given the Exynos 5xxx launch date, it's very possible A6 could be a 32nm dual core A15 design.

I don't see a big need to up the GPU again since they still have the strongest out there right now. I don't know that Rogue cores will be mature enough to hit the market by the time iPad 3 launches (if in April).

 

[Lixivial]

I have serious doubts about these sources, considering they are leaning on such flimsy evidence. /cores/core.x is a traditional Darwin location for core dumps. The naming convention, as evidenced in that link, is core.processID.

While it could certainly be different for iOS, I do have doubts about that. Of course, flimsy evidence doesn't preclude the possibility, but I wouldn't put much stock in the report as is.

 

[apolloa]

Very true but iOS completely changed the game by introducing a few very important changes - mobile browser capable of displaying site in full form, usable multitouch interface and an emphasis on centralized app store made for easy discovery and purchase of apps. Symbian was a capable OS but it got ancient fast once iOS made the splash followed by Android and WP7. I'm a former Symbian S60v5 user. It was atrocious.

I think the screen tech helped with the multi touch though. I liked Symbian! I went down the Sony Ericsson route they also had their own stores too but nothing like the app store. So Apple just did what it does, took the ideas and technology and made them work, well work a hell of a lot better.
The real innovation was the interface, making it simple. We didn't really have that before, I remember thinking to myself when I looked at the first iPhone, it was overpriced, under powered and way under specced compared to the competition. But man the interface was friggin amazing and a real breath of fresh air.
I seem to still think that today! I just don't get Android on phones? The interface. I like Android on tablets though, not phones?

 

[firewood]

I can see apple doing heterogenous processing before ARM's sanctioned solution hits, though.

They already do. The iPhone 3G is thought to have at least 3 different ARM cores hidden inside it. So says an ARM executive. Even more for the latest devices.

 

[chrmjenkins]

They already do. The iPhone 3G is thought to have at least 3 different ARM cores hidden inside it. So says an ARM executive. Even more for the latest devices.

I sincerely doubt those are general ARM cores and not specialized ones that can perform functions that is only a subset of the main cores on the SoC. That's what the 5th core on the Tegra 3 is.

 

[marcusj0015]

The First Rule of HTML5 was: Don't Break the Web.
Now, it's time for Apple to stop Breaking the Web and Bring Java Back.

There's no excuse now, with quad core processors.
Thanks.

Java wasn't/isn't part of the web. they didn't lose anything, java apps are slow as **** because they aren't native code. get over yourself and learn.

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Yeah, Apple doesn't care about specs, which is why the 4S has the most powerful mobile-phone GPU on the market which trashes almost everything else.

Apple simply not idiotic enough to base its advertising on specs, but it uses the most ideal and optimized hardware possible for the task at hand. It's not idiotic enough to believe most consumers understand or even give a crap about those numbers.

Apple dosen't care about specs, as in they don't market them, of course they want the best performance possible, are you dense?

 

[wrinkster22]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Why do you need a quad core phone/ tablet?
Wouldn't the battery be worse?
The MBA and the 13" MBP are still dual core

 

[marcusj0015]

What about the heat problem? I'm not saying it's just an issue for Apple, but "we" can't keep making devices more and more powerful with no way to cool them.

Actually, We can. each generation chips get smaller and use less energy, therefore less heat to dissipate.

 

[sazivad]

Apple is just following Android manufacturers:

* Android gets dual core - Apple follows
* Android gets quad core - Apple follows
* Android tablets get cameras - Apple follows
* Android phones/tablets get better hi-res cameras - Apple follows
* Android phones get bigger screens - Apple follows (expected this year)
* Android phones get NFC - Apple follows (expected this year)
* Android devices get LTE - Apple follows (expected this year)
* Android devices create market for 7" tablets - Apple follows (later this year)

To get an idea of which new features the next Apple phone/tablet will get, one can simply look at the current crop of the best Android devices.

Most of these, I suppose are true, except for the ones that haven't happened yet. However, this does not mean you can draw the conclusion that Apple is simply waiting for whatever Android device manufacturers put in their devices, and then copy them. I think Apple had most, if not all of those points in development before or around the same time Android was developing them, but waited to implement them so that they could get them just right (for instance, Android had multitasking first, but Apple's version of multitasking drains much less battery. I have a feeling that if Apple will implement LTE, a similar scenario will happen.). Feel free to disagree.

On topic: I think quad-core Apple devices would be pretty awesome. Hope that this isn't similar to the dozens of fake device IDs that Apple recently put into iOS.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

A QuadCore makes the whole system more power efficient, because iOS can disable cores which are not used by the current app. QuadCore means also that tasks can be finished in a shorter amount of time, which means also less energy consumption. All in all, this means a longer runtime @ higher speed. Nice.

 

[chrmjenkins]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Why do you need a quad core phone/ tablet?
Wouldn't the battery be worse?
The MBA and the 13" MBP are still dual core

Not really. They generally are very good at using minimal power on unused cores through tricks like power gating (power is actually turned off to that core).

 

[cookiesnfooty]

I really do hope we are given access to faster clock speeds without sacrificing battery.

 

[marcusj0015]

So:
core.0 = single-core
core.1 = dual-core
core.3 = quad-core


OMG, I got my maths backward!

You guys totally don't get it, it's not some specific code, as it is the names of the cpu cores to the OS. core 0 = 1 cpu core. there could core 15, which would be a 16 core CPU. do you get it now? it's not a strange user naming stystem, it's the OS naming convention.

 

[Liquinn]

Most of these, I suppose are true, except for the ones that haven't happened yet. However, this does not mean you can draw the conclusion that Apple is simply waiting for whatever Android device manufacturers put in their devices, and then copy them. I think Apple had most, if not all of those points in development before or around the same time Android was developing them, but waited to implement them so that they could get them just right (for instance, Android had multitasking first, but Apple's version of multitasking drains much less battery. I have a feeling that if Apple will implement LTE, a similar scenario will happen.). Feel free to disagree.

On topic: I think quad-core Apple devices would be pretty awesome. Hope that this isn't similar to the dozens of fake device IDs that Apple recently put into iOS.

Hm, I never follow Android anyway. But I see both of your points.

Cheers

 

[mrklaw]

Very true but iOS completely changed the game by introducing a few very important changes - mobile browser capable of displaying site in full form, usable multitouch interface and an emphasis on centralized app store made for easy discovery and purchase of apps. Symbian was a capable OS but it got ancient fast once iOS made the splash followed by Android and WP7. I'm a former Symbian S60v5 user. It was atrocious.

symbian had a decently capable browser - not restricted to wap, full HTML. Just limited by having to scroll around it with keys.

And the iOS app store took a while to come around - not sure when but symbian had 'app' stores with software market etc. Not great but they existed. Also video calling ;P

but yes, iOS does it more slickly and touch is a major part of that.

 

[Bensalama21]

Wait what? I thought apple didn't care about specs? Who needs quad core processors? Funny

Well the iPad is used more for gaming. Thats why they would need to worry about specs more on the iPad than the MacBook. Quadcore = even better games being released onto the app store.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Indeed, what software do the screenshots depict? Some disassembler? Or simply source files in assembly?

They used IDA Pro, the standard in the RE industry.