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Apple Quietly Updates iPad 2's Processor
bonch writes "Apple has quietly replaced the iPad 2's A5 with a smaller 32nm die that increases battery life by 15 to 30%. It's theorized that Apple is using the iPad 2 as a test bed for the new hardware platform, which shrinks the surface area of the A5 to 57% of the previous size."
mini ipads are coming
And they didn't change mine... Not even quietly.
Maybe if the leave the old big one behind, I can put it under my pillow tonight. Then, when the processor-ferry comes around, I will end up with some shiny coins as well!
rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
I doubt it. Apple is all about user performance (for the envelope they target). You would probably see more real world dollars by keeping the stock battery and touting the 15-30% increase in battery life instead. 12 hour tablet? yes please!
Good-bye
I find it very difficult to believe that a die shrink would improve battery life by that much. Given the amount of energy used by the screen and the radios, you could probably remove the CPU entirely and not see a 30% power reduction.
Either they fixed some other issues, or else the power savings are being exaggerated. Did the old processor have an extremely high sleep current, perhaps?
This only applies to the WiFi version, called iPad2,4. The CDMA and 3G versions are still using the older 45 nm version of the A5 processor.
- Henrik
- when the Shadows descend -
No mystery; From the article :
"the learnings (sic) Apple gains from building the 32nm A5 will pay off later this year as Apple ramps up production of a 32nm SoC for use in the next iPhone."
They're further developing their A5 and ramping up production by introducing it first in an existing product. Smart.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Page 4 of TFA states that the 30% was measured while gaming. Games typically put a high load on both the CPU and GPU; these are scenarios where the total power usage is high and therefore the screen and radios make up a smaller fraction of the power footprint.
Plus, since this chip is smaller, they can get more on a wafer. As long as the yields are good, they're already saving money on each chip.
If they changed the battery, I'd imagine that would require case changes as well as designing and ordering new batteries. All the tooling is already done for the current size battery, why change it?
People who buy the iPad 2 now just have a chance at getting better-than-advertised battery life.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
The premium 9.7" 'new' iPad comes with the 2048Ã--1536 px display.
Apple could shrink down the iPad 2 to, say, 7" at 1024Ã--768 px.
If they're continuing to update the "old" iPad well after the "new" iPad came out, it seems logical to conclude that they intend to maintain two lines of iPads.
I can see some logic to this - the iPad 2 is becoming their "low-end" tablet, and the iPad 3 is becoming their "high-end" tablet. You'll note that the 32GB and 64GB iPad 2s were discontinued, but the 16GB (aka cheapest) models are still made. Most likely they'll keep trying to chip down the price of the iPad 2 to make it more competitive with the cheaper Android tablets, while producing higher-spec (and higher-price) iPad 3 models.
There's probably going to be some brand-shuffling going on. Most likely they'll rename them to "iPad" and "iPad Pro", mirroring their old MacBook / MacBook Pro branding.
obviously, since jobs death they are working with a limited supply of magic. until an entire new generation of unicorns can be grown and harvested, there simply isn't enough to fill the old full sized CPUs.
-Lod
More like feared...
The smaller number of different models increases the liquidity of the used market, which is good for stabilizing prices, and also has an effect on depreciation. You can actually sell almost any 24 month old apple laptop for half what you paid for it. Can you do that with a dell? Or is your upgrade plan, "buy a new one and send us the old one and we won't charge you too much to recycle it."
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Same process, not same processor. And besides, Samsung's foundry is completely separate from their mobile business.
Apple just had a cooling issue with one of their products, and now they are shrinking the surface area of a product?
A die shrink reduces thermal output, lowers voltages, increases battery life.
Surely we went over all this with Ivy Bridge?
Yes, but let's be honest. That Dell probably wasn't anything special to begin with.
I am John Hurt.
bonch is a professional 'social marketing influencer' who is paid to post stories which promote Apple and slander their competitors.
Here are some of the shill's most recent submissions:
In the words of a paid commenter, Apple is breaking records and 'clarifying' its self to Authors, whilst including incredible new technology in its' tablets. Meanwhile, Google is being investigated by multiple governments, censoring, is full of viruses, and losing market share, Nintendo is failing when compared to the iPhone, and Free Software is a dying corpse that should be abandoned in favor of iPad apps.
bonch, why don't you disclose that you were paid to post this?
The sad part is neither is the Macbook. It's a bloody computer and an obsolete one at that.
Pay 50% of the original value for something that likely has a completely dead battery which is not user replaceable? No Thanks. At least with an old Dell I can just slap in a new battery and it's otherwise still as good as it was when it came out.
A 57% die shrink is something any company would be happy to have - their costs go down as well. Also, as the main submission said, the power requirements are greatly reduced, which in Apple's case would be just as big a reason to upgrade - the 15-30% is nothing to scoff at.
Typically, if a company makes that sort of change, they also bundle in other changes - in this case, Apple could use a RAM that's die shrunk, as well as other newer or cheaper components.
More like feared...
The smaller number of different models increases the liquidity of the used market, which is good for stabilizing prices, and also has an effect on depreciation. You can actually sell almost any 24 month old apple laptop for half what you paid for it.
Actually, a 2008 unibody macbook 13" (current models have "pro" moniker) still sells for ~$500-$750 on ebay [1]. I have one I bought new at the time for $1300... that's about 40 month old machine, and with OSX lion upgrades, modern SSD and memory upgrade it's as usable as a new one.
[1] http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=macbook+13+unibody+2008&_sacat=0&_odkw=macbook+13+unibody+-pro
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Probably b'cos iPad3 is already used w/ the newest A6 that there is. I'm guessing that the A6 is on the same technology node as the new A5.
I doubt that they'd be using a brand new, untested chip on any high profile product. They might have used it in something else - say an AirPort - before putting it here.
You mean your XOOM has lied about its battery life for longer? Don't get me wrong, but my "10 hour" iPad made it across the atlantic and back, with 3 days in between, reading all the way on both flights (11 hours each), and doing some other stuff with it in between. That's because the "10 hours" is 10 hours of browsing, with a reasonably bright screen brightness, with WiFi on. Put it in flight mode, and turn the brightness down to read in the dark and it lasts for ages. By comparison, I've yet to see another tablet (the XOOM included), which by "12 hour battery" doesn't mean "we once managed to sneak out 11:31 by turning the backlight off, wifi off, and leaving it idle".
The sad part is neither is the Macbook. It's a bloody computer and an obsolete one at that.
I still constantly hear and read this. I'd go as far and say ever since Jobs rejoined Apple and introduced OS X this isn't the case anymore.
I'm a die hard nerd/geek with 13 years of Linux experience, and I love nothing more than a well-configured x86-Linux driven piece of hardware *and* ever since I stopped buying the most recent windows games - sometime back in 2001 or so - I allways go for the most bang for buck.
Why then is it that I'm typing this on a MB Air?
Quite frankly, because there is no alternative. It's Unix with most of the Bash & CLI toolstack preinstalled. It has a touchpad that for once isn't built by the techstandards of 1995 - i.e. doesn't suck like an industry-grade vacuum cleaner. It has a 64bit core 2 duo CPU and a battery life management built into the OS that was built by the exact same people that built the battery and the motherboard and everthing else inside it 1,3kg light aluminum enclosure.
Ok, there are, as of now, Ultrabooks out there that don't come with MS tax and cost less with simular performance. But when I bought this one, after long and carefull consideration, there wasn't an alternative.
A PC that doesn't even come close to the current cheapest Mac Mini in size, noise, ease of handling and performance costs upwards of 1000$ at least. The cheapest mac mini costs 600$. Even if I replace the HDD with an SSD it will still be no more expensive or even cheaper than a PC equivalent.
A different example: I recently got myself an HTC Flyer tablet - also after long and carefull consideration. The upsides were: Cheap (bargain offer), precisely the right size and no Apple AppStore / X-Code ADC lock-in. And it was the only one that could compete with Apple quality wise. Actually, i I find the HTC Flyer to have a more pristine enclosure than the iPads.
Yet again, I'm a computer expert and have very specific considerations to make when buying such a device.
The newest iPad comes at 479 Euros and is at least a generation ahead of everything else in the tablet world - if I were a mere consumer that would be a very attractive prospect and anyone would be hard pressed to find a better offer price wise.
Bottom line:
Apple is loosing karma by the minute with a lot of experts, for the reasons we all know - but the legend that their hardware is overpriced is simply that: A legend. Within the spec-range they choose to deliver and cater to, they are, in fact, quite a good value. Denying that is just being silly.
My 2 cents.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Pay 50% of the original value for something that likely has a completely dead battery which is not user replaceable? No Thanks. At least with an old Dell I can just slap in a new battery and it's otherwise still as good as it was when it came out.
Apple went from a user replacable battery that lives through 300 charges to a non-user replacable battery that lives through 1000 charges and has a much better charge in the first place. After two years, my MacBook Pro battery is almost new.
Apart from that, if you can't replace a non-user replacable battery in a MacBook Pro yourself, what business do you have posting on Slashdot?
Yes, but it also concentrates the footprint of the area generating the heat, requiring more and more exotic heat spreaders.