I think it is but the A4 is at 45nm. I don't know if 32nm is within the realm of plausability for the iPhone 4, but I know that Intel has been selling 32nm chips for a while so its being done.
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If the iPhone 4G(HD) uses the A4, will it be running underclocked?
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I think it is but the A4 is at 45nm. I don't know if 32nm is within the realm of plausability for the iPhone 4, but I know that Intel has been selling 32nm chips for a while so its being done.
Just did some browsing and found a few interesting things about the power consumption of the A4 CPU vs the 3GS CPU:
A4 source
3GS Source
Some math:
.59 * 600 = 354 mW......just about smack dab in the middle of the A4 estimate (average was 385). So if you account for the 16% increase in battery size, and naively correlate that to 16% more battery life we could see the A4 at 1GHz in the new iPhone with essentially zero drop in battery life.
This is all rather crudely done, and none of it should be taken as fact but it does show a possibility.
A4 source
3GS Source
Some math:
.59 * 600 = 354 mW......just about smack dab in the middle of the A4 estimate (average was 385). So if you account for the 16% increase in battery size, and naively correlate that to 16% more battery life we could see the A4 at 1GHz in the new iPhone with essentially zero drop in battery life.
This is all rather crudely done, and none of it should be taken as fact but it does show a possibility.
tuna - I think you're confused. The fact that an both the 3GS's processor and the A4 are Cortex A8 does not mean that they are the same processor. It means that they have the same core architecture, sure, but that doesn't make them the same component just clocked at different speeds. The 3GS' processor is a 65 nm processor that safely can run at 833 MHz without overheating. By shrinking the die size on the A4 to 45 nm, they were able to accomplish speeds of 1 MHz without overheating.
Back to topic: I would not be at all surprised if the processor is underclocked to 800 MHz but still outperforms the Snapdragon due to Apple's ability to pare the A4 down to only the functions they need it to perform. The Snapdragon tries to be everything to everyone, and you know what they say about jacks-of-all-trades.
Back to topic: I would not be at all surprised if the processor is underclocked to 800 MHz but still outperforms the Snapdragon due to Apple's ability to pare the A4 down to only the functions they need it to perform. The Snapdragon tries to be everything to everyone, and you know what they say about jacks-of-all-trades.
I have no idea what the ratio of physical size/battery length is, but that's why I added the disclaimer in my post.
My point was that they've already decreased power consumption by going from 65nm to 45nm. Going to 32nm would be icing on the cake, but probably not necessary to run the A4 at 1GHz.
The two sources I provided earlier state that the 3GS runs at ~.59 mW / MHz and the A4 ran at somewhere between .25-.53 mW / MHz. So depending upon just how efficient Apple made the A4, its more than possible to run it at 1GHz with no loss in battery life. Especially since they increased the size of the battery.
So Apple could go one of two routes.
1) Significant performance increase, minimal battery life increase
2) Significant battery life increase, minimal performance increase
Personally I'd choose the first, you can recharge the battery but you can't increase the performance.
Like this
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/12/fourth-generation-iphone-teardown-reveals-a4-microprocessor/
http://www.ifixit.com/blog/2010/05/iphone-4g-processor-revealed/
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/05/1...or-256mb-ram-n90-pro2-translated-impressions/
the A4 chip isn't really that large.
Here's the iFixit teardown to get a sense of just how much space the A4 takes up in the iPad (not much).
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad-Wi-Fi-Teardown/2183/2
There is no way Apple would put an A4 in the next iPhone. It's like putting an i7 in a Mac Mini. The thermal conditions would be terrible. However, I could see Apple making some form of new processor which utilizes A4's processing technologies. 
There is no way Apple would put an A4 in the next iPhone. It's like putting an i7 in a Mac Mini. The thermal conditions would be terrible. However, I could see Apple making some form of new processor which utilizes A4's processing technologies.
Well, the Vietnamese prototype had an A4.
There is no way Apple would put an A4 in the next iPhone. It's like putting an i7 in a Mac Mini. The thermal conditions would be terrible. However, I could see Apple making some form of new processor which utilizes A4's processing technologies.
The A4 is a lock. Would Apple spend another $1,000,000,000 making another chip.