“In technical circles, one part of the iPad buzz has been its microprocessor, the A4, with a lack of detail from Apple (AAPL) fueling speculation about what it can or can’t do,” Erik Sherman writes for BNET.
“Unlike most of its other products, Apple went with a custom semiconductor design,” Sherman writes. “The prevailing opinion says that the chip is nothing special.”
Sherman writes, “However, it looks as though Apple has released some details — through a number of patent applications — and that there is something interesting going on in the silicon.”
• 2220100042900 — Write Failure Handling of MLC NAND
• 2220100042817 — SHIFT-IN-RIGHT INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROCESSING VECTORS
• 2220100049951 — RUNNING-AND, RUNNING-OR, RUNNING-XOR, AND RUNNING-MULTIPLY INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROCESSING VECTORS
• 2220100049950 — RUNNING-SUM INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROCESSING VECTORS
• 2220100042818 — COPY-PROPAGATE, PROPAGATE-POST, AND PROPAGATE-PRIOR INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROCESSING VECTORS
• 2220100042807 — INCREMENT-PROPAGATE AND DECREMENT-PROPAGATE INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROCESSING VECTORS
• 2220100042815 — METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EXECUTING PROGRAM CODE
• 2220100042816 — BREAK, PRE-BREAK, AND REMAINING INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROCESSING VECTORS
• 2220100042789 — CHECK-HAZARD INSTRUCTIONS FOR PROCESSING VECTORS
Sherman writes, “All deal with microprocessor architecture details, suggesting that, unlike the speculation, Apple has used customization of the processor design to optimize performance, either on the A4 or in a future chip.”
Much more in the full article here.
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