How do we Know the A5X Clock Speed?

[Menel]

I've also wondered why the screen itself would use that much more power. Given some pretty basic laws of physics about energy, the screen itself shouldn't use any more energy, unless it produced more light or heat.

Requires significantly more light. The back light has to push light through the pixel matrix, and when that matrix is made up of tinier holes, it requires significantly more light to deliver the same brightness.

There has been much talk about a dual light bar vs. a single. That's where most of the power is consumed in an LCD, and where most of the power in any mobile devices goes, the backlight.

It's completely plausible that 100% increase in display power draw + x?% in SOC power consumption + doubling of RAM = ~70% increase in overall device power consumption.

 

[iHuman1337]

Okay, I think I get why the Retina Display warrants such a huge increase in battery. My only question left is, how come in the transition between the 3GS and the 4, why wasn't there such a huge increase in battery? From what I've seen the battery between the two was almost the same.

 

[tanboom]

Okay, I think I get why the Retina Display warrants such a huge increase in battery. My only question left is, how come in the transition between the 3GS and the 4, why wasn't there such a huge increase in battery? From what I've seen the battery between the two was almost the same.

Good question, anyone there....

 

[Menel]

Okay, I think I get why the Retina Display warrants such a huge increase in battery. My only question left is, how come in the transition between the 3GS and the 4, why wasn't there such a huge increase in battery? From what I've seen the battery between the two was almost the same.

Without verifying your assertions... physical size, area of display for one reason

 

[MythicFrost]

Okay, I think I get why the Retina Display warrants such a huge increase in battery. My only question left is, how come in the transition between the 3GS and the 4, why wasn't there such a huge increase in battery? From what I've seen the battery between the two was almost the same.

They used the same GPU and the backlight probably didn't need to change. I'd expect the battery size increased a little bit too.

 

[batting1000]

Clock speed is irrelevant. It just matters whether the software and hardware are optimized for each other. If they aren't, clock speed doesn't matter. I could have a hexa-core Android tablet, but if the OS isn't optimized to take advantage of the speed and smoothness it's capable of, the 6 cores are useless.

 

[Tom8]

Here's a question to those more knowledgable on the situation than me. If Apple is using the exact same CPU in iPad 3 as iPad 2, doesn't that mean they're both vulnerable to the same jailbreak exploits, rather than the hackers having to find a new way to jailbreak the iPad 3?

I would expect Apple would be inclined to modify the CPU simply to avoid that situation, if my understanding of Jailbreaking is correct (which it might not be)

 

[scottw324]

The Retina display does take up that much power. It is driving 4 times the amount of pixels hence the 70% increase in battery life just for the display.

Also Apple does sometimes update a product without upgrading the CPU. Case in point, the iPhone 3G which utilized the same processor as the original iPhone. It is also the reason why the 3G ran like crap as soon as iOS 4 came out.

Keep in mind that even though Apple didn't upgrade the CPU in the 3G and 3GS they ran them at difference clock speeds (about 400 and 600 mhz). That is what the OP is asking about. If the A5X is clock at a higher mhz than the just the A5. As for 2 mhz, hell no. If you are luckly I would say 1 ghz to 1.2 ghz since apple is all about performance and battery life, a happy marriage of the two. To be honest the A5 runs well enough for me on my iPad 2 that I am happy with it and would rather have the 10 hr battery than a little more speed.

 

[Chundles]

Keep in mind that even though Apple didn't upgrade the CPU in the 3G and 3GS they ran them at difference clock speeds (about 400 and 600 mhz). That is what the OP is asking about. If the A5X is clock at a higher mhz than the just the A5. As for 2 mhz, hell no. If you are luckly I would say 1 ghz to 1.2 ghz since apple is all about performance and battery life, a happy marriage of the two. To be honest the A5 runs well enough for me on my iPad 2 that I am happy with it and would rather have the 10 hr battery than a little more speed.

Not quite true. The 3G had a Samsung processor in it but it wasn't the same as the 3GS. The 3G could run at 620MHz but was underclocked to 412MHz. The 3GS though had a very different processor in it - the same manufacturer but it was a full blown Cortex A8.

The 3GS had much more in common with the iPhone 4 with respect to processor than it did the 3G. It was significantly faster and more capable.

(Clarification) the 3G was ARM v6 while the 3GS was ARM v7.

 

[scottw324]

Not quite true. The 3G had a Samsung processor in it but it wasn't the same as the 3GS. The 3G could run at 620MHz but was underclocked to 412MHz. The 3GS though had a very different processor in it - the same manufacturer but it was a full blown Cortex A8.

The 3GS had much more in common with the iPhone 4 with respect to processor than it did the 3G. It was significantly faster and more capable.

aaaahhhhh, cool, thanks for the correction. I remembered that they underclocked both processessors from what they could have run but didn't realize that they were actually different. I guess the max theoretical 600 mhz and 800 mhz for the 3g and 3gs should have been a clue since if they were the same they would have had the same theoretical max mhz. Was concentrating on the underclocking part without putting all the thought into it. Sorry, it is 5am, brains not fully awake yet.

 

[Buildbright]

They used the same GPU and the backlight probably didn't need to change. I'd expect the battery size increased a little bit too.

The 3gs and the iPhone 4 used different backlights (coil,ic,). The iPhone 4 with twice the resolution uses almost half the power at peak! Pretty sweet deal right?

You are right about the battery it was a bit bigger but all this why the iPhone 4 was so loved for its battery life.

 

[MythicFrost]

The Retina display does take up that much power. It is driving 4 times the amount of pixels hence the 70% increase in battery life just for the display.

Also Apple does sometimes update a product without upgrading the CPU. Case in point, the iPhone 3G which utilized the same processor as the original iPhone. It is also the reason why the 3G ran like crap as soon as iOS 4 came out.

It's not the pixels themselves that are increasing power consumption. It's because the GPU will be utilised more to power the display, but also it's very likely they needed to use a more powerful backlight.

The 3gs and the iPhone 4 used different backlights (coil,ic,). The iPhone 4 with twice the resolution uses almost half the power at peak! Pretty sweet deal right?

You are right about the battery it was a bit bigger but all this why the iPhone 4 was so loved for its battery life.

Ah, I didn't know that.

I'm counting down the days until someone gets their hands on an iPad 3

 

[Chundles]

aaaahhhhh, cool, thanks for the correction. I remembered that they underclocked both processessors from what they could have run but didn't realize that they were actually different. I guess the max theoretical 600 mhz and 800 mhz for the 3g and 3gs should have been a clue since if they were the same they would have had the same theoretical max mhz. Was concentrating on the underclocking part without putting all the thought into it. Sorry, it is 5am, brains not fully awake yet.

All good, had to double check myself - always good to remember things. It's 8pm here, running at the peak of my powers... all downhill though.

 

[haruhiko]

Well, applying the tick-tock model, I guess that the main CPU part has no update this time, dual core, 1GHz, otherwise they will call it the A6. Of course, the graphics part has received a big update for the insane resolution.

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/03...tfitted-with-1gb-ram-early-benchmarks-reveal/

It seems that I was correct