“Today has been pretty exciting. Not only did we confirm the die size of Apple’s A5X SoC (162.94mm^2) but we also found out that it’s still built on Samsung’s 45nm LP process,” Anand Lal Shimpi reports for AnandTech. “Now, courtesy of UBM TechInsights, we have the first annotated floorplan of the A5X.”
In the full article (link below), “You can see the two CPU cores (ARM Cortex A9s) as well as the additional two GPU cores (PowerVR SGX543MP4) compared to the A5,” Lal Shimpi reports. “Note the increase in DDR interfaces, although it’s unclear whether we’re looking at 4×16 or 4×32-bit interfaces. It’s quite possible that it’s the former. Also note that Apple has moved the DDR interfaces next to the GPU cores, compared to the CPU-adjacent design in the A5. It’s clear who is the biggest bandwidth consumer in this chip.”
Check out Apple’s new A5X in the full article here.
Forget Dell & Microsoft playing catch up with Intel.
They have to do the Gretsky: move to where the puck will be a year from now…cause it ain’t going to be where it is now.
Microsoft and partners won’t need to skate to where the puck is. They’re going to put about 18 players in the hockey rink at once, so no matter where Apple hits the puck, there will already be a man standing in that position. That’s the whole strategy of players like Microsoft and Android. Just load up the rink with as many team players as possible. They can easily put four goalies in at a time so Apple’s chances to score a goal will decrease.
There are no rules in this hockey game and Wall Street is counting on Apple to lose.
So funny… Thanks… I can just see a hockey game with one team having tons of players,,,, all wandering around, getting in each others way..
The 4 goal tenders, 3 helping Apple tend its goal… the forth somewhere kinda sorta near their goal… Just so funny.
Of course the costs are 3-4 times as much, the confusion is 10 times as much, and the game plan??????? what plan..???
What a way to start a monday. and 12% interest per year from Apple stock. Wow. $1000 a share looks closer than ever.
Anandtech. Mythbusters. Howstuffworks.com. I’m really thankful for people out there who enjoy doing that kind of stuff, because I don’t. But I benefit from their curiosity and skills. Great article.
It’s only the tech-heads that care about this stuff and most of them are probably saying that this chip is behind the times because some Android devices are using quad-core chips that are clocked to the moon while Apple’s A5X is basically an old processor with a “couple of minor core updates”.
This updated hardware just doesn’t impress tech-heads at all. That’s the reason critics continue to say that it’s just some older iPad with minor incremental improvements. The thing is, I’m not exactly sure what would be considered major improvements to the iPad. Expectations for the next iPad must be off the charts.
“It’s clear who is the biggest bandwidth consumer in this chip.”
Huh?
Maybe it has to do with the DDR interface (whatever those are) using up a lot of bandwidth and are thus better off being relocated next to the GPU cores. That’s my uneducated guess. YMMV!
The graphics processing units (GPUs) on the new iPad are moving a lot more data than the dual-core CPU, so Apple located the Double Data Rate (DDR) memory interface in close proximity to the GPUs to enhance data throughput to the 2048×1536 pixel display.
And it works great!
Congratulations! Clearly the most boring MDN story, ever! Total Buzzkill!