Realistically what CPU could iPad2 have?

[Piggie]

Without going extreme and wishing for something silly that's not going to happen.

3GHZ Quad Core !

Based on the A4 CPU that's in the current iPad, which Is I believe a modified and clocked up chip by another design team that Apple bought

(please correct me if I'm wrong on this point)

What sensibly might we expect on the next iPad given they have only had 1 year to bring along a new design/tweak to another chip?

I think I'm right in saying the current chip is single core and many new chips are dual core. The speed also 1Ghz seems to be about the max of others out there right now.

Apple will need to put something into it (May/June next year lauch) which will keep it at/near the top of the pack for the whole of the following year till June 2012 when the next change, iPad3 will come along.

I'm not expecting a GIANT advance on the CPU/GPU for iPad2 to be honest, but with all the Tegra2 tablets coming soon (a main one in the UK in only 4 days time due for launch) I expect Apple will feel it needs to do something.

Any thought on what practically they might be able to fit into the next model?

 

[flopticalcube]

I'd rather have more RAM. Probably be an A9.

 

[jav6454]

A5, which is to say the same thing as a A4 with 512MB RAM.

 

[Piggie]

Well I think we'll all explode if we did not get 512MB or system memory. I think that's a given, and 1GB would of course, be nice, but I don't think that will happen "yet"

If we get the A9 version of the chip is that just dual core?

Seeing how Apple write their own code for their own system to make the very most of it. I'd assume a dual core chip in an iPad would make things fly as they would write their own code to use both cores to the very best.

Or does anything think Apple won't do anything at all about the CPU and leave it untouched for another whole year till the 2012 model?

 

[flopticalcube]

I think it will remain single core for now. The A9 can be configured for up to 16 cores I think but there is always the battery life to think of. Given that it's 25% faster at the same clock speed, I think they will stay with one core and more RAM.

 

[jav6454]

The iPad will continue to be single core for a looong time. The iPad is made for on the go computing. Also, the types of applications thus far do not need or require dual or more core computing.

Also, you aren't running Crysis. As much old as that meme is, that's the dam truth.

 

[Piggie]

I thought multi-core was good for things like Music in the background whilst video plays, and of course any other multitasking, where one core could do background tasks whilst the other doing what you are looking at.

I suppose it depends also on what Apple's plans are for iOS5, or whatever it's called on the new model next year.

Would be a shame for me personally if they do nothing at all.

 

[Nishi100]

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I think that the next iPad will have a
A5 (Apple will call it A5) based on A9 - the current gen is based on the A8.
512mb - 1gb of RAM (I think 512 or 768mb)

I doubt that we'll see a A15 or a dual core - it's unessesary (look at the iPad's RAM or lack of)

 

[Julien]

I thought multi-core was good for things like Music in the background whilst video plays, and of course any other multitasking, where one core could do background tasks whilst the other doing what you are looking at...

Actually I believe that muti core's main advantage is for complex computations (number crunching) and has little benefit for music/video playback or simple multitasking.

 

[Meever]

Yeah. Background multiple tasking is more ram dependent.

More ram and a slightly higher clocked CPU with same or longer battery would make me pretty happy.

 

[phyrexia]

a4 clocked to 1.3ghz, 512mb ram