So we all know the iPhone 4G/HD prototype from Vietnam had the Apple A4 CPU, and in the iPad it clocks at 1GHz but wouldn't this use to much battery or produce to much heat for such a small unit as an iPhone? Is it likely that it will run underclocked at maybe 800MHz? And how would this put it in comparison to the Snapdragon?
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If the iPhone 4G(HD) uses the A4, will it be running underclocked?
- Thread starter fishmoose
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Personally I think it will be under clocked to 800 MHz. But since Apple can optimize the OS for this chip it might seem faster than a Snapdragon.
I agree, but you would think theyd want to be able to say its better than SnapDragon.
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Does Apple usually market based on specs? I'm thinking no.
I think it will be underclocked.
-aggie- said:
Does Apple usually market based on specs? I'm thinking no.
I think it will be underclocked.
I'm pretty sure Apple doesnt care about the phone producing heat. Have you ever used your phone for over 20 min, it gets pretty darn hot.
Umm, so is the CPU in the iPhone 3GS "underclocked" to 600Mhz from 1Ghz? The CPU component of the A4 is the ARM Cortex A8, same as the 3GS. Its designed to run at a range of clock speeds. Apple will choose based on the balance of chip yields, power use, heat generation, performance, etc.
But yes I would be very surprised if it was clocked as fast as the iPad. iPad battery is 5 times as big as the iPhone.
The screen that battery has to power is also 5 times as large.
The A4 has been lauded for its low power consumption. I don't see Apple underclocking the A4 in the new iPhone. I don't think they'll need to.
Also, the new design of the iPhone and the micro sim have allowed Apple to increase the battery size. Pretty sure Gizmodo talked about that in their teardown.
There's a reason Apple products have the best battery life by plenty, so I say let them do what's best to continue that streak. And you're forgetting that a larger battery might only make up for the flash, and the better screen and whatnot.
As I said, the "A4" is a packaging and rebranding of components that are all in the iPhone 3GS. (1) the ARM Cortex A8 CPU, (2) the PowerVR SGX 535 GPU, and (3) 256MB of RAM. I think that the CPU and GPU might have already even been on the same chip in the 3GS. The only difference in design is that the RAM in the A4 is stacked on top of the CPU/GPU package. This has some performance improvement, but not nearly enough to clock the CPU 67% higher. There could also be a die shrink, but again the power savings would not add up to that much.
And yes, the battery found in the Gizmodo 4G iPhone had 16% higher capacity than the one in the 3GS. I still don't see that being enough to get to 1Ghz.
Not exactly following what you're saying. Are you saying the A4 isn't powerful enough to run at 1GHz?
Right, 833mhz is the max clock on that samsung manufacture of the Cortex A8 + SGX 535 thats used in the 3GS. We know that because Samsung advertises that chip for sale to any device developer. The A4, we have no idea what its physical performance range is, for all we know it is "underclocked" in the iPad versus its maximum clock rating for various potential reasons. We also don't know that there hasn't been another die shrink from the 45nm manufacturing process for the iPad
Yes that's for the 3GS. The A4 is completely different though. The A4 chip design allows it to run at a higher clock rate. See wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_A4
And actually, we do know the A4's max clock rate is 1GHz. And that is exactly what the A4 in the iPad is running at. It's been confirmed by numerous sources.
Again, it all comes down to battery life.
No I meant energy efficiency performance. We have decent information that the new iPhone battery will have 16% more capacity than the 3GS. And then I was pointing out that two possible opportunities for power savings in the A4 for iPhone would be that the RAM is stacked directly on top of the CPU/GPU package and that it could possibly be manufactured at the smaller, 32nm process. And then I was saying that all that together doesn't seem to add up to being able to run the CPU 67% faster.
Hey, I hope I'm wrong and they figured out how to integrate a 1Ghz Cortex A8. iPad-speed web browsing would be very welcome.
I read that, I don't take that it can run at higher clocks to necessarily mean that it can run at lower watts per megahertz.
But, since Apple has been very comfortable with false advertising in the past, they will say it is better than the snapdragon, becuase the A4 is. However, what they actually run it at won't be better.
Hmm...interestingly enough the 3GS A8 was manufactured at 65nm. So even if they don't manage to get down to 32nm they've already saved some energy by shrinking it to 45nm.
Anyways, this article caught my attention as well.
http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224701036&printable=true&printable=true
And then you'll come here and complain about how poor your battery life is. Man, technology is fun.