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XBox 360 introduced around 2006 ( 7 years ago )
PS 3 introduced around 2006 ( 7 years ago )


Faster than technology from 3.5 Moore's law cycles ( rounding to a 2yr/cycle ) ago is amazing ?

~1/50th the power dissipation. So, yeah.


I don't believe this rumor. I don't see why they can't start with A7. But hey, maybe Apple is skipping A7 and going straight to A8 and iPhone 7!!!!
 
This seems to be mostly about Apple trying to separate from Samsung. It's always good not to rely on any one supplier, especially one that you are in patent litigation with.

I think it is more that apple doesn't want to do business with a company who is also a competitor (and can just as easily be privy to your tech and use them against you).

TSMC is just a manufacturing plant, so it is unlikely to compete in any way.
 
This is from the perspective of the foundry. With a July chip "release" end-user hardware can start showing up in September due to supply chain lag.

To me, this means late 2014 to mid 2015 for the first "laptops" with A9 chips powering them. They will like like Airs.

Rocketman

Assuming they move to ARM based CPU's then I'd guess it'll be 2015/2016 in line with LLVM maturing its support for ARM64 but then again there would have to be a damn good justification for such a move other than "well, might as well standardise on a single architecture" particularly when one considers that ARM's only benefit is the ability to scale down but once you start throwing on the sorts of features found in advance processors such as x86-64 you quickly find that the 'power advantage' quickly disappears and the gap isn't significant to justify the pain and suffering caused by the architecture move. IMHO you've got a better chance of Apple moving to Intel for their embedded CPU if we're going to talk about pie in the sky ideas given that it would mean that they could deploy their hardware engineers to more useful endeavours and enjoy even juicer margins.


I think it is more that apple doesn't want to do business with a company who is also a competitor (and can just as easily be privy to your tech and use them against you).

TSMC is just a manufacturing plant, so it is unlikely to compete in any way.

True and Samsung like to claim that there is a 'firewall' between their devisions but I wouldn't believe their claim at all - end of the day when you outsource a key component of your product that makes your product range unique then you'd simply asking for trouble in the long run.
 
XBox 360 introduced around 2006 ( 7 years ago )
PS 3 introduced around 2006 ( 7 years ago )


Faster than technology from 3.5 Moore's law cycles ( rounding to a 2yr/cycle ) ago is amazing ?

Sure if you see that an xbox360 needed a cooling solution that was as loud as a jet engine and you can have now same or more power in a phone.

Yes this IS amazing
 
With a July chip "release" end-user hardware can start showing up in September due to supply chain lag.

To me, this means late 2014 to mid 2015 for the first "laptops" with A9 chips powering them.

That is something many people are forgetting of overlooking: Apple moving back to their own chip design. The Airs and Minis and maybe even iMacs could possibly move back to Apple-designed CPU/GPUs in the next 3 years.
 
Where it's going

Where the industry is going is that the smartphone is going to become your computer. It will initially dock for a desktop like the Ubuntu phone, and later will dock into a laptop shell if portability is needed. Eventually, we may dock into another OS. This is already possible by booting from a flash drive, or just switching to that OS from what is running.

This will start in china, where people will see the wisdom of not needing to purchase a computer and a smartphone. It will spread like wildfire into India as well. And then to other second world countries where Internet penetration is still less than 20% among adults.

Intel now has the processors to do this. Ubuntu will have the operating system in the fall, it is already released to developers. These chips are fast enough that they will be able to run emulators so all the fanboys can run their iOS applications until they get cloned for Ubuntu. intel has already paid Samsung to include an Atom chip in a tablet. This will be the last opportunity for intel, as arm servers are being developed. The problem for intel, is that processors for smartphones only support a $50 profit, instead of the $100 intel needs to cover USA production costs. There is actually a glut of servers in the world, initial surveys showed that as many of 30% of the servers in server farms were doing nothing but consuming power and producing heat.

The only thing missing from the prototype of this concept is that the smartphone will become the trackpad/touchscreen for the computer.

The processor that is going to float to the top in this is the chip company that produces just one processor, one that can be customized with firmware to provide the functionality needed for the device, and the clock speed to meet the power requirements. Untold billions are spent on too many variations of chips, producing CPUs that all do exactly the same thing, to get functionality undetectable by the average user. The economies of scale of producing just one chip are phenomenal. IBM used to (maybe still does) do this with the power pc chips in the as/400. You wanted to upgrade to a faster model, you paid, the tech rep showed up, and changed the microcode and you had the faster model. The complete functionality was already there, from the desktop to the high end model.

And btw, I live in Ecuador, and there are NO laptops available for less than $700. The opportunity to give a student a smartphone, tablet and home computer for that price is simply to great to be missed.
 
I cant wait to see what the next gen of tech will hold. Im keen to look back and laugh at how I only had 32gb of ram in my computer as it will be common place for a phone.

HA HA! Some of us remember ZX81s with 1KB of RAM, one of the first truly personal computers to the masses:D
 
That is something many people are forgetting of overlooking: Apple moving back to their own chip design. The Airs and Minis and maybe even iMacs could possibly move back to Apple-designed CPU/GPUs in the next 3 years.

Move back? When were they ever?

And the ARM in their Mac line is completely unrealistic. The performance is not comparable. These architectures aren't meant for those power ranges. It's yet to be seen if ARM's 64 bit ISA changes that.
 
ARM's only benefit is the ability to scale down but once you start throwing on the sorts of features found in advance processors such as x86-64 you quickly find that the 'power advantage' quickly disappears and the gap isn't significant to justify the pain and suffering caused by the architecture move.
Apple has been "simplifying" OSX with iOS and improving its capability with multitasking, graphics, and memory and power management. A laptop has considerably more TDP capacity than a phone or a pad and could easily support two such supercharged processors as well as a new GPGPU co-processor (or two). Furthermore Apple has been writing work class apps for the streamlined iOS with iWork apps for iOS.

PCIe based flash and cube memory would certainly make even a weak-a$$ chip seem fast.

Rocketman
 
Samsung is one step ahead of Apple

As Apple is switching to TSMC for chip manufacturing, Samsung is switching to Intel's Atom chips (for now just for tablets). This might be a better strategy since Intel has far superior process technology compared to TSMC.
 
As Apple is switching to TSMC for chip manufacturing, Samsung is switching to Intel's Atom chips (for now just for tablets). This might be a better strategy since Intel has far superior process technology compared to TSMC.

Samsung is just opportunist. They use qualcomm SoCs in NA for their devices.
 
They use the best CPUs available. There is nothing wrong with that (at least for consumers).

Eh, they use all the CPUs available is more accurate. The reason they use Qualcomm in NA is due to their whole package when the cellular radios are taken into account. Otherwise they'd be using Exynos.
 
Too bad TSMC isn't making enough money on their chip production to update what appears to be the ugliest logo on the face of the planet. :D
 
I'd be cool with that as long as they don't integrate the hd3000 gpu :D

Image

5S releases in the fall, and the iphone 6 comes out in Spring to royally infuriate everyone who bought a 5S only 7 months earlier.

:eek:

I'm thinking July is a possibility (9 months), which wouldn't upset anyone, but I think their chip manufacturing processes is really what determines their speed and capacity.
 
Damn, I was told today that I have to switch to a Samsung Galaxy or Blackberry Device when starting my new job in August...Sorry, of topic, but that article just brought that back to my mind :(
 
it'd take at least two years till the A8 chip hits the market, right now apple should be busy bringing out the next iphone, plaese apple, bring it out earlier than the expected time.
 
I cant wait to see what the next gen of tech will hold. Im keen to look back and laugh at how I only had 32gb of ram in my computer as it will be common place for a phone.

Your phone doesn't have anywhere near 32GB of RAM and is not likely to have for some time I suspect.
 
You're right. I guess then, I won't be getting an iPhone until I can get one with the A9 chip. Yessuree, that'll be the one. I know I waited for the A4 and then A5, and now was waiting until the A6, but I decided to stop all this "not buying until the next chip comes out" nonsense. I'll set the bar really high and not worry about it for a few years.

But someday I will get my first iPhone. Really. Apple just has to meet my (ever moving) expectations.
:D
Strangely, I felt the same way too before I even owned a smartphone. Then I just dove in the smartphone world with an iPhone 4S. Now I'm using an iPhone 5 and those are the only 2 smartphones I've ever used I don't regret it. I'd love to try an android phone but I wouldn't make a serious commitment with an android phone.
 
.....Apple has so far exclusively used Samsung as the supplier for its A-series chips, but with the two companies emerging as bitter rivals in the mobile device market, Apple has reportedly been trying to reduce its reliance on Samsung for component supplies. TSMC has been the most commonly rumored candidate to take over supplying Apple's A-series chips, but it has taken some time for the two companies to reach an agreement and work out any technical hurdles to the shift.

Article Link: TSMC Reportedly Lands Three-Year Deal for Apple's A8 Chip and Beyond

Let's hope TSMC can 'deliver'; there aren't that many foundries left that can deliver the quality of chips APPLE requires, at the needed quantities. APPLE may have considered going down that road of building their own foundry, but perhaps came to the conclusion that it wasn't cost-effective.....
 
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