iPad Why did Apple not put A6 in ipad mini retina?

[gadget123]

Why did they not put an A6 in the ipad mini and offer less features like the last ipad mini? Why did they decide to make it premium only smaller?

 

[FrozenDarkness]

becuase the A6 can't drive a retina display in ios7

 

[v0lume4]

They also boosted the price up to $400, so it's not necessarily that they were just doing it to be friendly. 😛

 

[herdnerfer]

They would've had to use the A6X, and since no other devices would've been using that chip as well, it was most likely more cost efficient just to move to the A7, so they could manufacture a single chip in a high quantity for both iPads & the iPhone 5s.

 

[haruhiko]

A6 cannot support retina display
A6X consumes too much power
Apple has no choice but to use A7 if they want to put a retina display on the mini.

 

[sixrom]

Every dollar Apple can save, they do. When they can sell anything at any price there's no incentive to include the latest tech 🙂

 

[VTECaddict]

So you're mad that Apple didn't gimp the retina Mini? 😕

 

[JoeRito]

Here's the real reason: they are moving EVERYTHING to 64-bit.

 

[herdnerfer]

A6 cannot support retina display
A6X consumes too much powerApple has no choice but to use A7 if they want to put a retina display on the mini.

I didn't think about the power saving bit, that probably makes the most sense of all.

 

[bambooshots]

I didn't think about the power saving bit, that probably makes the most sense of all.

That, and Apple will save on money in regards to economies of scale producing the A7 across its flagship devices.

Also, look and see what the die size of the A6X is vs the A7. I think the A7 is actually a bit smaller.

 

[DaCurmudgen]

becuase the A6 can't drive a retina display in ios7

I'm no engineer, so this is an honest question. If that is true, why can the iPad 3 A5X chip power a Retina screen with iOS7?

 

[ditzy]

I'm no engineer, so this is an honest question. If that is true, why can the iPad 3 A5X chip power a Retina screen with iOS7?

The A6X can drive a retina screen the A6 can't.

 

[Zellio]

Just because it wasn't used doesn't mean it cant

 

[FrozenDarkness]

let's not kid ourselves, the iPad 3 runs iOS7 terribly.

 

[Charliebird]

It's probably easier for Apple and software developers to have fidelity across the product line. Most of the cost and hard work is related to developing the technology. Stamping out an A7 processor isn't much harder than stamping out an A6X (maybe even easier). Cost wise there isn't much savings either since an A7 processor cost $19 dollars a piece.

 

[Count Blah]

In going up to a retina display, they were forced to go with the A7 over the A6X, to save on power consumption.