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NVIDIA Tegra 3, 1.5GHz quad-core - Yes please for iPad3

Oh please, that's just over kill. I cannot see needing any sort of quad core processor in any mobile device.

I'm finding that current A4 to be more then up to the task. The iPad was never meant to replace a laptop or computer, and being more of a in between device there's little need to have quad core processors and such.
 
maflynn said:
Oh please, that's just over kill. I cannot see needing any sort of quad core processor in any mobile device.

I'm finding that current A4 to be more then up to the task. The iPad was never meant to replace a laptop or computer, and being more of a in between device there's little need to have quad core processors and such.
Click to expand...

Well, like it or not, over the next few years, the iPad will become more capable in every sense of the word, and users will be forced to adapt to this confusing burden.:p
 
maflynn said:
Oh please, that's just over kill. I cannot see needing any sort of quad core processor in any mobile device.

I'm finding that current A4 to be more then up to the task. The iPad was never meant to replace a laptop or computer, and being more of a in between device there's little need to have quad core processors and such.
Click to expand...

Oh please, that's just over kill. I cannot see needing any sort of car for transport.

I'm finding that current horse drawn carriages to be more then up to the task. The car was never meant to replace trains, and being more of a in between device there's little need to have engines and such.

Edit: Just saying...
 
nomik2 said:
Oh please, that's just over kill. I cannot see needing any sort of car for transport.

I'm finding that current horse drawn carriages to be more then up to the task. The car was never meant to replace trains, and being more of a in between device there's little need to have engines and such.

Edit: Just saying...
Click to expand...

Unfortunately your example is off the mark.

We're not talking about a major shift in technology, horse to car.

We're talking about adding a quad core processor into a device that apple itself has positioned to less then a laptop but more then an iPhone.

Perhaps you should a have picked a better example to try to pick apart my thread, clearly the one you used missed the mark

Just sayin :rolleyes:
 
maflynn said:
Oh please, that's just over kill. I cannot see needing any sort of quad core processor in any mobile device.

I'm finding that current A4 to be more then up to the task. The iPad was never meant to replace a laptop or computer, and being more of a in between device there's little need to have quad core processors and such.
Click to expand...

Thing is though multiple cores aren't necessarily all about more processor power. In theory anyway having multiple cores allows an OS and its applications to run multiple threads across those cores and, as a result, run the cores MUCH slower than a single core processor would have to work for the same result. Again, in theory, that can lead to power savings, less heat and a more predictible end user experience as there's less chance of a stalled thread affecting the system.

The problem with all of that is you have to have an OS that not only implements multi-threading well but makes it simple for applications to do so as well. From what I've heard iOS actually does this pretty well at the moment, despite only running on a single core processor right now, so should be in a good position to take advantage of the new hardware.
 
I honestly don't see Apple using the Tegra 3 in any of their idevices. Why would they, when they have their own ARM based Chip Design team. With that said, we already hear the rumors that the A5 (or A6 depending on which generation they switch), will have the Cortex-A9 processor which is the same processor used in the Tegra 3. Apple doesn't need to go to Nvidia to get a quad core processor for the iOS devices as they already have a team working with the very same processor. Secondly, the next gen GPU most likely used is the PowerVR 543. The 543 is also also capable of being multi-core and could push as much as 3x to 4x the video processing power as the current 535. I would also venture to guess that the 543 wouldn't require a complete rewrite to the drivers and software that will be utilized in it like the Tegra 3 would.

While the Tegra 3 is great, it is really no better than what is already rumored to be in the pipeline for future iOS devices and would require a lot of driver and programming changes for both Apple and Developers to implement.
 
smiddlehurst said:
Thing is though multiple cores aren't necessarily all about more processor power. In theory anyway having multiple cores allows an OS and its applications to run multiple threads across those cores and, as a result, run the cores MUCH slower than a single core processor would have to work for the same result. Again, in theory, that can lead to power savings, less heat and a more predictible end user experience as there's less chance of a stalled thread affecting the system.
Click to expand...

Except not. If it's perfectly multithreaded, sure that may work in theory, but for example the moble i7 quad core chips get crazy hot, and eat power very quickly even under light load. Since iOS is currently a pretty light load, it would be wasting power to power four cores at light load vs. one at a low-medium load. iOS is probably designed to be multithreaded in preparation for the future for when that will be beneficial. Definitely a good idea there, it's just not necessary at the moment.
 
paulrbeers said:
I honestly don't see Apple using the Tegra 3 in any of their idevices. Why would they, when they have their own ARM based Chip Design team. With that said, we already hear the rumors that the A5 (or A6 depending on which generation they switch), will have the Cortex-A9 processor which is the same processor used in the Tegra 3. Apple doesn't need to go to Nvidia to get a quad core processor for the iOS devices as they already have a team working with the very same processor. Secondly, the next gen GPU most likely used is the PowerVR 543. The 543 is also also capable of being multi-core and could push as much as 3x to 4x the video processing power as the current 535. I would also venture to guess that the 543 wouldn't require a complete rewrite to the drivers and software that will be utilized in it like the Tegra 3 would.

While the Tegra 3 is great, it is really no better than what is already rumored to be in the pipeline for future iOS devices and would require a lot of driver and programming changes for both Apple and Developers to implement.
Click to expand...

Exactly my point of view. why would Apple put in a Tegra SoC, when they invested in buying a company like P.A. Semi for $278 million in April 2008.
not going to happen, Apple will always use their A4, A5, A6 and so on with their mobile products.
 
maflynn said:
Oh please, that's just over kill. I cannot see needing any sort of quad core processor in any mobile device.

I'm finding that current A4 to be more then up to the task. The iPad was never meant to replace a laptop or computer, and being more of a in between device there's little need to have quad core processors and such.
Click to expand...

Never say never....I'd be hard pressed to say that any computer had hit its max for computing. Desktop will always want more CPU and GPU speed to make things faster(or for software which need better speed)

Quad Core will make multitasking even better...and hopefully we'll see more RAM(I think its a given). More power lets Apple do more with iOS(that said, the A4 is great...still can't wait for something better)
 
alust2013 said:
Except not. If it's perfectly multithreaded, sure that may work in theory, but for example the moble i7 quad core chips get crazy hot, and eat power very quickly even under light load. Since iOS is currently a pretty light load, it would be wasting power to power four cores at light load vs. one at a low-medium load. iOS is probably designed to be multithreaded in preparation for the future for when that will be beneficial. Definitely a good idea there, it's just not necessary at the moment.
Click to expand...

With all due respect you can't compare an i7 (a performance part) to an ARM processor directly. I did make a point of saying "in theory" as this depends entirely on the processors involved and how good the power management is. You're also assuming that iOS is a) going to stay as it is and b) isn't going to include any further multi-tasking functionality. Perhaps more importantly if the unused cores aren't actually required they can be shut off entirely, leaving the additional processing power available only if its needed but not consuming any battery power. As for whether it's "necessary" the one obvious area is gaming but there are a lot of other options that can be explored once you've got the power available to run them.

As I said above, this is all theory until we've got multi-core processors to look at and see where iOS, Android etc is going to go over the next couple of years.
 
Uhm no thanks, 2012 is all about ARM Cortex-A15 MPcore and not the lowly ARM Cortex-A9 ;)

Be sure that Apple will go with an in-house System-on-a-Chip (SoC) solution optimized for their product portfolio, most likely on a 28 nm process.
 
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