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A5: All Apple, Part Mystery
PabloSandoval48 submitted a fairly lengthy story running on the EE Times about the A5 processor that powers the iPad 2. The story talks a bit about the A4 and A5, the IP issues surrounding the chip, and more. The real question now is what comes next.
The A6?
The real question now is what comes next.
Here's a hint: It will be faster, and it will probably be called 'A6'. Just a guess.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
The A6 Quattro?
Best Slashdot Co
The authors of the article and the editor who approved it should be ashamed of themselves. Five pages saying exactly nothing.
And by the blood of Steve Jobs's suicided sweatshop slaves.
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"The A[3+n] processor will be included in Apple iPad [n], which will be released in [2009+n]."
I just saved you the trouble of thinking
It's not the advertisements that tend to make people link to the print version, it's when they spread the article out over several pages. I don't mind advertisements at all, but I hate the online equivalent of turning to several different newspaper pages to finish a single article.
I might side with you if there were any content. The article consisted of some micrographs and a lot of "duh" speculation. I came away with very little new information. It took them a huge block of text to tell me that they don't know what 60% of the chip does.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
There are plugins that will take care of that for you. Safari has a "reader" button by default that loads all the pages of an article into a single view.
As the article noted, using such a huge die was strategic decision to differentiate their products. Have read (too lazy to find right now) that the graphics performance provided on the A5 is not available on any other ARM chip, and therefore not available to any Android tablets.
In about 2 years a new line of Desktops and laptops will be announced that used the new A10 processor, this processor will be used to get rid of all those ooky older intel based devices by having the new OS not compatible with it. Thus purging the world of the old product forcibly. Just like how those disgusting old G5 quad core towers still linger about now...
Using old hardware makes Jobs angry.... you wont like him when he's angry....
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
It's merely a well planted Apple advertisement. A5 is SO powerful, so amazing, that even if you're not impressed with iPad 2, you'd be silly to actually consider an alternative instead of waiting for A6.
We've been seeing a lot of this stuff, lately. I wonder why Apple's so worried that their zombie masses will snap out of it.
To be fair, I'd rather not be subject my subconscious to brainwashing... er... marketing.
I understand websites need revenue. I am also a webmaster. I have ads on my website. And I hate them and completely support visitors blocking them. It's a necessary evil, and I don't fault visitors for fighting that evil.
I might side with you if there were any content. The article consisted of some micrographs and a lot of "duh" speculation. I came away with very little new information. It took them a huge block of text to tell me that they don't know what 60% of the chip does.
60%... dual core ... what an interesting ratio... build 5 cutting edge cores and as long as at least 2 of the cores pass testing, ship it...
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
There was however one recent article suggesting Apple implemented hardware video accelerators in the A4.
The comment seemed almost too easy in light of the above discussion. If this is in fact true one might question whether this is somehow associated with Apple's stance on Flash for its iOS devices. However, such an accelerator would have been one of the digital blocks. Does this imply it was also present on the S5PC110?
Yes, Samsung do have hardware video accelerators in their hummingbird processor. It supports mpeg4, H.264, H.263, Sorenson codec, DivX HD/ XviD, VC-1 and the video formats 3GP (MPEG-4), WMV (Advanced Systems Format), AVI (divx), MKV and FLV.
Why would I want to support content-free filler like that?
Apple is feature set driven, the A5 had to make a deadline, they probably threw silicon at one of the new/"hard" problems. FaceTime comes to mind, the expansion was probably to handle R/T video encoding, size possibly driven in order to avoid someone else's elegant solution (and IP). As long as the yields weren't impaired, this would be a perfectly good decision. There could be some support for network packet movement (for video) as well.
By A6 this should be crammed down via proper (and time consuming) sidestepping of conflicting IP.
Another possibility is Thunderbolt support, we'll know in the next release of iOS.
I wasn't saying that was why they linked to the print version, as much as ethically you SHOULD at least give the site a chance to present ads.
From there astute readers have mechanism to read articles in one block they split across many screens (I dislike that also). But at least give the site one shot at ad presentation.
On a more practical and selfish note if people all over start linking to print versions we will start to see the print versions vanish.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
There are plugins that will take care of that for you. Safari has a "reader" button by default that loads all the pages of an article into a single view.
Safari's reader feature is great, when it works--and it does with this article. Often times, it will only load the first page, or omit graphics, which makes it a little unreliable. Still, I always try reader first before hitting the print version.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
I've been a /. reader for over 8 years now and have noticed the change in the type of story discussed here. I keep seeing people saying things like "Why are we talking about FB - this is suppsed to be a techie site and we should discuss techie things". I tend to find myself agreeing with them most of the time.
Then a story like this comes along - which should be "manna from heaven" for Nerds and Geeks and I try to read TFA - only to find myself yawning and giving up coz it's dry, tedious and badly written.
I can't even win in an argument with myself anymore - must be a sign that I'm getting old.
Apple opens up a new plant in Brazil. Production could start as early as November. Perhaps then, we could see the new IPad 3.
Source:
Report: Apple Part Maker Foxconn to Open Brazil Plant
Since Apple's products seem to be merging somewhat... OS X Lion will incorporate some of the features from the iPad and iPhone... how fast do they think these "A chips" will get? Will they eventually replace Intel chips in whatever passes for an iMac one day? Will we see the day when Apple makes most of the parts that goes into their products themselves, rather than subbing out major systems? Will the PowerPC fanboys that so loudly cried foul! when Apple "sold out" and went to Intel rejoice? Is an ARM-based chip "think different" enough from Intel for their liking?
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
I am also fine with visitors blocking ads, though I consider it somewhat unethical as well and so don't do it myself (beyond blocking Flash which at this point is just a usability necessity).
What I object to is someone presenting an article, making the choice of ad and content presentation for the user, and for the site. A site aggregator like Slashdot should let each side proceed using whatever choices they want to make about how to present the article. What Slashdot is doing in theory is pretty similar to overlaying their own ads on another site (since Slashdot also is presenting ads and then giving a link to ad-free content).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Or we will see site operators that do not fluff up a 1 paragraph story to 5 pages then spread those 5 pages out to present you with ads 5 times,
Fuck the operator that does that. I hope their sites fail. That way the cream can rise to the top and the shit heads can starve.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
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"I don't want more choice, I just want nicer things!"
-Jennifer Saunders as Edina Monsoon
They speculate that Apple could have added x, y, and z and never bother to look at the functioning iPad 2 to see if there is evidence of it.
Evidence suggests that apple has added hardware acceleration to common routines to improve battery life as the size/weight of the iPad 2 has decreased (implying the same size or smaller battery), speed has increased, and the battery life has stayed the same. This implies efficiency gains, likely in the CPU/GPU. See no reverse engineering required.
That, although overly profane, is actually the best counter-argument to my point I have seen so far, as I don't really disagree with your point and it is making me re-consider my point.
But I would still say that if you wanted to do that simply don't link to them rather than "stealing" (not really stealing but sort of the moral equivalent) from them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I hate people like you, everything is a conspiracy that apple made against humanity. Hitler was actually a iMac G4 prototype. And i know, apple killed your mother and ran over your dog. i'm so freaking over it. Just use what you like.
What I find interesting about that, is that apple is blamed for not basically revolutionising the Market with every revision of their product. I never heard a reviewer blaming dell that a new product line of notebooks was just lighter, more powerful etc. I find that totally in order . The iPad 2 is a new revision of a well received product. That is totally normal. I think that everybody who expects a revolution from apple every single year has fallen more for the "apple fanboyism" the the so called fanboys :)
Not really. The article says that the extra blocks in the A5 will probably be for video acceleration
Perhaps because Apple can't actually supply equipment for said masses - they need to keep them hungry while they figure out their supply chains.
Not so much. The two ARM cores are pretty easy to identify on the chip, as are some of the other components. The rest is... something. No one cares enough to work out exactly what. Oh, and the two ARM cores are well under 40% of the total die size. The GPU takes up a reasonable amount of space, and then there are controllers for the various peripherals (network, audio, USB and so on), interrupt controllers, and so on.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Not looking at the ads on a site that does a bait and switch with an article with an interesting headline and absolutely no content is in no way the "moral equivalent" of stealing.
I'm surprised at you, Kendall for even suggesting such a thing. I know you know better.
What ever for?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Between A5 and its creator, Steve Jobs, who had to audacity to impress his own memory engrams on the new chip. Due to his ongoing "personal issues" the chip became unstable and slaughtered its opponents Motorola, Samsung, and RIMM. Jobs will remind A5 of how great they both are before playing dead and waiting for HP to join the fray...
Jobs also made a point of sending his regards to Captain Dunsel. AKA Steve Ballmer.
I'm surprised you lack morals. Go steal candy from little children then instead of stealing impressions from webmasters. At least you can see the crying directly and understand the impact you are having.
I always thought a sense of morality was ingrained. Between my down-moderation on this issue and your response, I realize now that in fact a sense of morality is something you must fight to keep in place, a fight some apparently gave up on long ago.
At least what I got out of this is knowing I'm a damn sight better person than a lot of Slashdot posters and moderators.
I mean, if I'm going to get modded down anyway I might as well speak truth to moral equivalence. Mod away, but you know in your heart something is wrong with re-formatting a site in a link you send to thousands of people.
I think for instance the same thing when I see an XKCD or Oatmeal comic embedded in some other site displaying their own ads. There is no difference here. It is pulling a lot of data down from the server with zero monetary return from the site. I also think it's bullshit spreading out fluff content across several pages; In that case I wouldn't link to them. If I chose to do so I'd do the honorable thing and send viewers to the page the thing was on.
You may have the last response; you'd only steal it for yourself anyway.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You are living evidence that long-term exposure and indoctrination to the Steve Jobs distortion field effect causes severe and irreparable neurodegeneration.
Mod down, bizarre and incoherent non sequitur.
I bet you stay glued to the TV when the ads are on, right? That would be the ethical thing to do.
Hardware video accelerators that support video containers formats?
Ethically, you should be out in the streets rescuing starving kittens instead of sitting here surfing.
Why do you let the kittens die?
XKCD and Oatmeal can protect themselves if they want to with referrer magic. So, apparently, they welcome this use of their comics. And, getting a sense of morality out of an obligation towards advertisers? Please, consider re-thinking this moral stance.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.