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Photo of iPad 3 Logic Board with "A5X" System on a Chip
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Probably a similar dual core with a significantly improved GPU to support the high res display. Fine by me really, how many apps out there actually use 4 cores? Considering the iPad is by far the most dominant tablet and is dual core, my guess is very very few.
My guess..... You have no clue what you're talking about.
You people always make me laugh. What makes you think a quad core would be better than a "better" dual core? Cores/speed does not = quality. How many times do I and people a hell of a lot smarter than me have to explain that?
Devastating? A bit dramatic don't you think? What would be your problem with 512 if it ran faster than the iPad 2, a device that is pretty screaming fast? Why would that be so "devastating" to you? I'm not saying I wouldn't like 1gig of RAM but if it's faster, I really don't give a hoot.
wa wa wa waaaaaaaaaa..... Please don't quit your day job.
What are you talking about. You just listed 4 things that would be 100% differenet between the 2 models and that wouldn't be enought to call it a new model? I smoke some pretty good stuff but I really need to try what you're toking on as it seems to be working!
What he said!
Are you reading another thread than I? I didn't see 170 posts about the processor. The only people that truely care about specs are, well for lack of a better word, losers. As in those that want to tout their ghz speed as if it really matters. As in those that want to go to X device and say their processor is faster (even though that means NOTHING). Now simply debating what the X in the A5 means doesn't necessarily mean they "care" which processor is placed in the iPad 3.
Really? NO other reason? Are you qualified to make that determination? I would bet not as if you were, you would be working for Apple. Many others have suggested it's for heat dissipation which of course you don't need to place a fan on top of it for it to do that job.... look at cheaper video cards, more expensive RAM, other chips on motherboards, ect ect.
However internal real estate is not cheap. Not saying they won't make it 1gig but if it runs faster than the i2 would the general consumer really care? Nope.
Either way I'm picking up as many as I can and hitting the Bay! So if you don't get one before they sell out the day they go on sale check out e-bay for one of mine marked up for a nice fat payday! If I can get four and sell 2 for a few hundred dollar profit I'll give my mom one as she loves my dads i2. (of course this will tork him as hers will be better but he'll get over it.)
Ok someone needs to take all these leaked parts and photochop them together to form a complete ipad 3
You could do a lot with just the logic board. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to power it, if you have some electronics knowledge.
Depending on what (if any) bootable system is on the board, it may be possible to use it headlessly.
But of course, we also have screens floating around. With the appropriate ribbon cable and some hacking... who knows?
Just trying to inject a bit of humour into this thread as everyone is going crazy about the A5X and if it's dual or quad core of which I couldn't care less.
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I don't think he was that serious
Apple will need to increase the memory. It's a limiting factor on what apps can do with iOS.
More cores don't make sense right now. Some parallelism on the CPU is important (especially for UI responsiveness), but we're not at the point where 4 cores would make a radical improvement over 2.
The biggest use-case would be games, where the ability to offload tasks to independent cores would be useful. I think Apple are going to help with this by bringing OpenCL to iOS 6 and opening up the GPU for parallel computation.
In terms of RAM, I would think the biggest issue for Apple is the power consumption: RAM is actively-powered. If it doesn't have power, it loses and corrupts its data. It must be powered all the time, even during sleep. Doubling the number of memory cells increases the power requirements (I'd guess something like 1.5x given that each cell would be smaller).
You need to make sure you have the battery to cope with that. For the iPad 3, there's no question that it needs more RAM. Apple will have had to find a way to get that much battery in to such a small space.
I believe it will be something "unusual" as Steve presented Apple's "multitasking" - its not multitasking so kind of it, so this will be something simliar with this this A5X (if its real) chip, Anyway just because of Retina I'm in, Im not missing performance on it, and I believe Apple is smart enough to make it fast enough to handle Retina.
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Yea and iPhone will begin with A6 core probably.
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Yea and iPhone will begin with A6 core probably.
well, if all the rumors about a smaller size iPad are true, maybe it's not the logic board of an iPad 3 but of the mini iPad2? (which make sense to me...)
I hereby predict two iPad models next month: iPad 3 (10", A6 based) and a "mini" iPad 2X (8-7", A5X based).
I hereby predict two iPad models next month: iPad 3 (10", A6 based) and a "mini" iPad 2X (8-7", A5X based).
i suspect we may indeed have a faster dual core and perhaps again 512mb ram inside the ipad 3. why? Well simply because a jump to 1gb and Quad Core would/could sign the death notice for iPad 1. Think of the problems app developers would have making an app that would take full advantage of quad cores and 1gb of memory, but still work with the 2 year old iPad with 1ghz single core and 256mb of ram. The leap to quad is perhaps too wide. I know quad core and 1gb would be awesome, but it will i envision be the start of apps no longer working on iPad and hence that machines early death warrant.
So by basically using faster and perhaps cheaper dual core architecture for the cpu/gpu it will have enough umph to power that retina display, without creating a gulf in architecture along the existing ipad lines.
So yes for that reason i predict the iPad 3 will have a dual core A5 with 512mb of ram. Though in my heart i hope its more, but my head is saying temper those killer spec hopes.
iPad 3
1.2ghz A5X CPU
1.2ghz SGX545 GPU
512mb ram
Retina Display 2048x1536 resolution
5 Megapixel camera rear, 1 megapixel front camera
4G LTE / 3G
slight refinement in case, slightly improved battery life.
and that would be it, sadly. Im also not sure Apple would plump for a 4G model as most countries dont have the infrastructure for it until 2013, so it seems pointless adding an expensive power hungry LTE chipset when most countries can not take advantage of the faster speeds anyway.
So by basically using faster and perhaps cheaper dual core architecture for the cpu/gpu it will have enough umph to power that retina display, without creating a gulf in architecture along the existing ipad lines.
So yes for that reason i predict the iPad 3 will have a dual core A5 with 512mb of ram. Though in my heart i hope its more, but my head is saying temper those killer spec hopes.
iPad 3
1.2ghz A5X CPU
1.2ghz SGX545 GPU
512mb ram
Retina Display 2048x1536 resolution
5 Megapixel camera rear, 1 megapixel front camera
4G LTE / 3G
slight refinement in case, slightly improved battery life.
and that would be it, sadly. Im also not sure Apple would plump for a 4G model as most countries dont have the infrastructure for it until 2013, so it seems pointless adding an expensive power hungry LTE chipset when most countries can not take advantage of the faster speeds anyway.
So I thought it might be interesting to have a look at the pair of hynix flash also in the picture.
It is a bit hard to work out the product code (is it s O or a D?, is it a U or a V?)
but the closest in the hynix product catalogue is its E2NAND2.0 products, which stat at a density of 128Gb!
I could be wrong, though, as I have never tried doing this sort of search before.
It is a bit hard to work out the product code (is it s O or a D?, is it a U or a V?)
but the closest in the hynix product catalogue is its E2NAND2.0 products, which stat at a density of 128Gb!
I could be wrong, though, as I have never tried doing this sort of search before.
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looks like
packaging looks like....this
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5169/samsung-exynos-5250-announced-cortexa15-2ghz-dualcore
so may be it is A15 after all?
packaging looks like....this
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5169/samsung-exynos-5250-announced-cortexa15-2ghz-dualcore
so may be it is A15 after all?
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I think it'll be a quad core.
A4 was an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, A5 was an A9, a new architecture.
It does not make sense to call the quad core processor an A6 if the architecture is the same. It's quad core but the architecture is A9, same generation, except four of them now, hence X - four nodes.
BMW also designates their all wheel drive cars with an X, BMW 325IX for example.
They would not add an X in there just for the increased frequency.
I think it'll be a quad core.
A4 was an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, A5 was an A9, a new architecture.
It does not make sense to call the quad core processor an A6 if the architecture is the same. It's quad core but the architecture is A9, same generation, except four of them now, hence X - four nodes.
BMW also designates their all wheel drive cars with an X, BMW 325IX for example.
They would not add an X in there just for the increased frequency.
Actually, now i'm not so sure of my original bet that it's Quad Core Cortex A9. I had my thinking cap on last night, and if we use a bit of logic we can conclude that the A5X will be either of three variations of processor.
The question is; what do Apple's AX designations signify? More cores? Architecture improvements? Or improvement in general? We can't really say because looking at the AX processor history, number of cores and architecture has changed each time.
Option 1: Say they generally mean an increase in cores. By this logic, it would mean the A5 is still a dual core, but something else apart from the number of cores has improved, hence the X. X could either mean a speed bump, or an architecture change...
Meaning either a Dual-Core A9 '+' (Most likely. Same as iPad 2 with speed dump) or a Dual-Core A15 (Unlikely as they'd probably save the A15 jump for the A6 as it's a big improvment)
Option 2: Say they tend to signify architecture changes instead. The A4 was A8, the A5 was A9, so the future A6 should be A15 by this logic. This would suggest the A5X is the same A9 architecture as the A5, but the X meaning something else has improved...
Perhaps the number of cores.. Quad-Core A9. Or if not the cores and not the architecture, it could only be a Dual-Core A9 again (with speed bump), as the above scenario also predicts.
Or in a very unlikely case, the A5X might simply be an early prototype, and they may have gone A6 after all. Following the key changes in Apple's AX naming scheme, the A6 would logically be a Quad-Core A15, increases in both cores and architecture. But that would be way too soon/unnecessary yet, and Apple like to drip-feed us.
tl dr: My crazy (and probably overcomplicated) logic predicts it's either one of these processors, in order of likelihood: Dual-Core A9 Speed Bumped, Quad-Core A9, or Dual-Core A15.
Ahhh all these A numbers, i'm done now. K thanks bai
The question is; what do Apple's AX designations signify? More cores? Architecture improvements? Or improvement in general? We can't really say because looking at the AX processor history, number of cores and architecture has changed each time.
Option 1: Say they generally mean an increase in cores. By this logic, it would mean the A5 is still a dual core, but something else apart from the number of cores has improved, hence the X. X could either mean a speed bump, or an architecture change...
Meaning either a Dual-Core A9 '+' (Most likely. Same as iPad 2 with speed dump) or a Dual-Core A15 (Unlikely as they'd probably save the A15 jump for the A6 as it's a big improvment)
Option 2: Say they tend to signify architecture changes instead. The A4 was A8, the A5 was A9, so the future A6 should be A15 by this logic. This would suggest the A5X is the same A9 architecture as the A5, but the X meaning something else has improved...
Perhaps the number of cores.. Quad-Core A9. Or if not the cores and not the architecture, it could only be a Dual-Core A9 again (with speed bump), as the above scenario also predicts.
Or in a very unlikely case, the A5X might simply be an early prototype, and they may have gone A6 after all. Following the key changes in Apple's AX naming scheme, the A6 would logically be a Quad-Core A15, increases in both cores and architecture. But that would be way too soon/unnecessary yet, and Apple like to drip-feed us.
tl dr: My crazy (and probably overcomplicated) logic predicts it's either one of these processors, in order of likelihood: Dual-Core A9 Speed Bumped, Quad-Core A9, or Dual-Core A15.
Ahhh all these A numbers, i'm done now. K thanks bai
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I don't think there IS such a quad-core A9 chip at all. Unless you're referring to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 4 solution (part duex which may never see the light of full production & distribution's daylight).
A15 is where the iPad and eventually iPhone is going. quite specifically for the following reasons:
separate cpu for low power processing when data transmission and power saving is required.
Quad-Core processing power with shared RAM - your apps in a WHOLE new way
4 separate GPU's running simultaneously to handle code efficiently together not just in parallel or quadrupole efforts.
I do believe we'll see a version of Xcode for iPad not too long from debut.
heck maybe even Logic Pro Mobile being launched.
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sorry dude.
32/28nm processes as per the design.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Cortex-A15_MPCore
There's no other choice but 1GB at 2048x1536, so don't worry about that -- the resolution is simply too high for 512MB.
I doubt they'd clock it so low for a dual-core. I think you'd see more like 1.4GHz, and maybe even 1.5GHz, and hopefully a 2GHz dual-core A15. It's not possible to reach those clock speeds on the GPU, as far as I know both SGX543's in the iPad 2 are running around 300MHz. That aside, a single SGX545 would be significantly slower than the MP2. To cope with the increased resolution, either an SGX543MP6 or a single SGX643 will be required.
A dual core CPU with more integrated RAM would make a lot more sense for the iPad than a quad-core. Most third-party apps in iOS are not that multithreaded--most of the power of a quad core would probably go unused. A solid 1GB of RAM and an overall clock increase (maybe to 1.2GHz) would probably help more than an additional two cores that spend most of their time in 'off' mode to conserve power.
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Could a processor with a heatsink like that work in a mobile phone or is it more likely that the next iphone gets an A6?
Could a processor with a heatsink like that work in a mobile phone or is it more likely that the next iphone gets an A6?
i hope its the A15. if not, at least something with the horse power to beat the current competition like the transformer prime.
My guess based on constantly monitoring forums, watching news on different sites and know how usally apple does things:
-more then 512mb ram. has to be more because well a retina screen requires some more then 512mb. if left in 512mb we wouldnt see alot of speed improvement. Could also be below 1gb though.
-at least 1.2ghz dual core. But maybe also improved to quad core. or more ghz. this is something no one unfortunaly can tell so far. They need to ask the source who published the image if its from a ipad3 or a early prototype. Then if its sure to come from a ready ipad3, they need to send it to ifixit or someone else to examine it.
-Better Camera's. 100% true. Why? seriously you cant make and view a 1MP picture on a resolution that high. Apple wont do that, im 100% certain.
-Retina screen. duh.
-Better battery. I think its highly possible we can see a 1 or 2 hour improvement over the ipad 2 battery. Although not more.
-Better GPU....although no one can guess what it will be.
@Younker: true, camera upgrades are 100% sure as well. cant stay 1MP with retina. But well i do fear the CPU and GPU will only get a slightbump. Ofcource the most software keeps working well. that's easy for apple. But....im a gamer, so tech specs does mean something to me ^^
But anyways, whatever it contains....if it got retina. then damn. apple has my money for the best ipad model.
My guess based on constantly monitoring forums, watching news on different sites and know how usally apple does things:
-more then 512mb ram. has to be more because well a retina screen requires some more then 512mb. if left in 512mb we wouldnt see alot of speed improvement. Could also be below 1gb though.
-at least 1.2ghz dual core. But maybe also improved to quad core. or more ghz. this is something no one unfortunaly can tell so far. They need to ask the source who published the image if its from a ipad3 or a early prototype. Then if its sure to come from a ready ipad3, they need to send it to ifixit or someone else to examine it.
-Better Camera's. 100% true. Why? seriously you cant make and view a 1MP picture on a resolution that high. Apple wont do that, im 100% certain.
-Retina screen. duh.
-Better battery. I think its highly possible we can see a 1 or 2 hour improvement over the ipad 2 battery. Although not more.
-Better GPU....although no one can guess what it will be.
@Younker: true, camera upgrades are 100% sure as well. cant stay 1MP with retina. But well i do fear the CPU and GPU will only get a slightbump. Ofcource the most software keeps working well. that's easy for apple. But....im a gamer, so tech specs does mean something to me ^^
But anyways, whatever it contains....if it got retina. then damn. apple has my money for the best ipad model.
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It'll have 1GB because of the retina display which will eat up RAM like your momma eats krispy kremes. 12MB per screen instead of 3MB - and that's probably double or triple buffered, and then you have the OS's and several applications' worth of art assets loaded.
The chip will be made on Samsung's 32nm process I expect (and it matches the 32nm Exonos packaging). This will mean that 1.4 - 1.8GHz could be expected from the SoC, depending on power usage.
However it isn't using the Cortex A15 because that would certainly merit an 'A6' brand. This is just a faster, die-shrunk A5. Dual-core. ~1.5GHz CPU, ~50% faster GPU, 1GB RAM. Bam.
What can the Prime do that the iPad can't? (Specific examples, and I'm not talking about the external hardware- i know it turns into a laptop, etc). Just asking in light of Josh Topolsky's tweets yesterday:
"After using the Prime for a week, it's clear Android tablets are still awful. Excited about new iPad, and I think MSFT has a huge opp here."
"Going back to the iPad after the Prime feels like going from drowning to fresh air. Insane difference."
(Keep in mind though people see him as an "Apple lover" his primary phone is a Galaxy Nexus which he thinks is the best on the market).
In any case, I trust Apple put enough juice in the iPad 3 to perform reasonably well at anything that can be thrown at it for a while. I'm sure they recognize the position the iPad 2 held with its competitors and though absolute specs aren't very meaningful, with actual real world use it will be more than fine.