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Apple A4 Processor Teardown

Posted by timothy on from the coring-the-thing dept.

Plocmstart writes "Here's what EETimes.com is claiming to be the first teardown of the A4 processor. 'Apple's iPad chip is a single-core ARM A8 made by Samsung. Through various benchmarking testing, UBM TechInsights was able to find out the details of the A4 processor.'"

15 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting by Pojut · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Anyone know what Google is planning on stuffing in their new tablet?

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    1. Re:Interesting by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Anyone know what Google is planning on stuffing in their new tablet ?

      Advertisements.

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    2. Re:Interesting by biryokumaru · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hrm... That brings a whole disturbing new level to the question "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

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    3. Re:Interesting by michaelhood · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Anyone know what Google is planning on stuffing in their new tablet ?

      Advertisements.

      Slashdot broke my mod points somehow, but this deserves to be modded to plus infinity. However, as anyone who saw the iPhone OS 4.0 presentation knows, there will be plenty of ads on the iPad too soon enough.

  2. No Way by LordBmore · · Score: 5, Funny

    This can't be right... TFA doesn't make a single reference to magic.

    1. Re:No Way by edittard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Are you saying this isn't so much a teardown as a lookat, a thinkabout or a getdrunkandspeculatewildly?

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    2. Re:No Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Ah, yes. I once accidentally reversed the 5 V and 12 V leads on a harddrive and saw the magical blue smoke escape from controller chip. Electronics work only so long as that smoke stays inside the chips! (I wonder how they get in it in there in the factories...)

  3. Useful / single page URL by BitZtream · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224701036&printable=true&printable=true

    Next time guys, save us the effort and use the link that doesn't require us to click next 4 times to read an article that fits on half a page.

    Oh ... timothy, nevermind.

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  4. Congratulations. by spun · · Score: 4, Funny

    You found a way to make Slashdotters actually click through to the article. Now, if only you could find a way to make them read it.

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  5. No but it does have neon. by leuk_he · · Score: 4, Informative

    It does have Neon but no powerpc. Strange that this information did not came from someone with a compiler. Does apple withhold information what code can be generated? Are devs so spooked by the apps license?

  6. Upshot: display tech dominates battery life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They show that power usage is:
    0.5 Watts at idle with the display disconnected
    1.75 Watts at idle with display at min brightness
    4.25 Watts at idle with display at max brightness

    They estimate that the A4 CPU uses 0.5 to 0.8 Watts when browsing the web over WiFi.

    Conclusion, FTA:

    Until display technologies make big moves downward in power consumption the consumer experience of battery life may be driven as much or more by the LED drivers, opto-mechanical design of the back-lighting, display settings and wireless connectivity employed versus the CPU itself.

  7. Re:also, multicore? by negRo_slim · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What does the UI have to do with processor performance?

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  8. Re:Next steps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    A4 for President

  9. Re:also, multicore? by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Brand loyalty first has to be earned. Apple didn't get lucky, they created a lot of great products and earned their brand loyalty.

  10. Re:also, multicore? by soppsa · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's all that matters in the end. This device isn't for you to play Crysis on or compile your gentoos.

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