question about the CPU

[dccorona]

forgive me if this is a noob question
i don't know much about the iPhone's CPU, except that it is approx. 600MHz but is underclocked to 400MHz
I am also aware that people have found ways to overclock it
although I know nothing about overclocking

would overclocking the CPU allow the iPhone to render better graphics in games?
and also, how simple is overclocking? (I'm not about to try it, but I did have an idea)

If overclocking can easily be done by software (again, forgive me if this is totally incorrect/impossible) and can improve graphics, could an app technically overclock the CPU when its running, and then return the CPU to its normal underclocked state when it is closed? If this is possible, it could improve game performance

 

[Joe Hill]

I believe the iPhone/iPod touch has a separate chip for graphics. I also don't think an application could unlock either, as the current SDK doesn't allow for direct control over the hardware.

 

[ayasin]

Overclocking a cell phone's CPU is a really bad idea in 98% of cases. It can lead to hardware damage as well as basically killing your battery life.

No official software can overclock the CPU as it's not part of the SDK. Overclocking the CPU wouldn't help game rendering anyway because there's a dedicated graphics chip.

 

[dccorona]

I believe the iPhone/iPod touch has a separate chip for graphics. I also don't think an application could unlock either, as the current SDK doesn't allow for direct control over the hardware.

i was thinking purely hypothetical
i was pretty sure such a thing wouldnt actually be allowed

but it seems that allowing it wouldnt do much anyway
it is, however, good to know that apple could potentially increase processing power in the future if need be, without a hardware update

 

[macduke]

i was thinking purely hypothetical
i was pretty sure such a thing wouldnt actually be allowed

but it seems that allowing it wouldnt do much anyway
it is, however, good to know that apple could potentially increase processing power in the future if need be, without a hardware update

Probably not.

Even if they released a higher powered battery, it might get too hot due to size contraints. They would need passive cooling, such as extra heatsinks, or active non-moving, such as what I believe is called a "piezoelectric" cooling system.

The processor speed would not be increased unless there was a hardware update.