“When Apple Inc unveiled its iPad last month, one crucial detail almost got drowned out in the hoopla: the new tablet computer will be powered by an in-house chip called the A4,” Ian Sherr reports for Reuters.
“While Apple likely will not market the chip publicly, analysts say the new processor underscores how rival chip designs may eventually win out over Intel Corp’s designs in the emergent hot category of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets,” Sherr reports.
“But analysts point to an uphill battle against Nvidia Corp, Marvell and Qualcomm Inc, already making headway with cheaper, low-power processors based on designs by ARM Holdings PLC,” Sherr reports. “‘They (Intel) don’t have a track record in delivering these types of chips,’ said Wedbush Morgan analyst Patrick Wang. ‘They haven’t been successful in the past, and they’re trying to get in.'”
“Not much is known of the A4 — the brainchild of Apple design teams including recently acquired PA Semi — except that it gives the iPad a long battery life and is considered comparable to rival processors in both speed and performance,” Sherr reports. “That Apple went its own way illustrates how specialized chip design may be more suitable for the burgeoning mobile market than Intel’s do-everything approach.”
Sherr reports, “Intel-based tablet laptops have been sold without huge success for nearly a decade. Apple uses Intel chips in its Macintosh personal computers and servers… But just as Apple shunned Intel for the iPad, most tablet and smartphone manufacturers have chosen to build products containing ARM-based products… That includes Apple, whose self-designed A4 is rumored to be included in the next iPhone, expected this summer.”
Full article here.
The A4 is even more important then the CPU and that is it’s GPU technology. PA Semi is very good at designing high end low lowered Processors CPUs and GPU units. Apple could very well keep an the Intel architecture for the processor and eliminated the Intel and/or Nvidia Chip set architecture all the way through the Graphics subsystem. This could allow Apple to produce faster more efficient computers while maintaining the Intel based CPU’s. Nvidia and ATI/AMD are both currently at a standstill in designing high end video cards that do not require more and more power with larger and larger cooling requirements. Apple could rival and even exceed both Nvidia and ATI’s GPU performance while lower energy and cooling requirement on the Mac Systems. Currently Nvidia nor ATI care if Apple as 90% of the $1000+ PC Market or if that segment was controlled by HP or Dell because Apple is still using Nvidia and ATI GPUs. If Apple were to develop it’s own GPU’s for the Mac it would hurt both Nvidia and ATI. It would be far more strategic for Apple in the long run to develop it’s own GPU family then it would to replace the Intel processor. After all Intel Processors are just commodity parts Apple buys in bulk from Intel. Apple does not not do the Intel Inside co-branding stickers so, Apple does not collect any Intel Marketing Money. Apple could switch freely between Intel and AMD for CPU processors at this point with little downside.
The other advantages for Apple moving to it’s own in house GPU is that by doing so the Graphic’s subsystems would be free of support from Microsoft’s DirectX which slows down the performance of Open GL and Open CL. Another is the halt to unauthorized Clone Macs. Can’t clone a Mac OS X system if you can’t buy a video card that the OS will support properly or if all you can sell are Clones with old and getting Older Video Cards. With Boot Camp Apple would have not problem providing Windows Drivers for it’s own Video Card and Chipset just as it does now. So an Apple Video Subsystem on all Mac’s makes for a more compelling move for Apple then for Apple to take a leap from Intel to an in house CPU architecture.
I do think Apple is wise to keep all it’s hand held products using it’s own chip designs and to just keep everyone guessing. I’d move iPhone, iPods, Airports and Apple TV lines all into the in-house CPU camp over the next few years.
@Moo – Google “Loremo” 150 mpg four seat sedan. Coming soon.
@R2:
iPhone 4G.
@sn
The 3G can do what R2 is whining about… Apple just doesn’t allow it.
Pandora can always put a Web browser in its app to allow browsing and listening. But it hasn’t.
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THERE WAS NEVER ANY RELATION between Intel’s mobile push and whatever Apple was or was not doing.
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Intel sold-ff its ARM business (StrongARM CPU designs) years ago, and iPhone/iPod Tough were never meant to run on anything Intel.
And, of course, for iPad Apple never even considered Atom processor because it has incompatible instruction set (IA32 x86).
Why would Apple want iPad to run iPhoneOS applications via emulator?
That is nonsense, and there was never real Intel Atom variant.
@R2
Don’t you have anything else to whine about?
Intel is just collateral damage. The reason that Apple HAS to got this route is due to the companies trying to catch up to the iPhone/iPad. Google got a great opportunity having their double agent on the Apple board for many years, so Apple now has to crank it up.
I see this more about the relationship between Apple and Google, than Apple and Intel. Time will tell.
The iPhone taught us that we don’t need to have a laptop with us all the time. Some email, some web access, some social network plus a host of new uses from iPhone apps gave internet addicts their fix while the laptop could stay home sometimes. I know I have been weened somewhat from MBP. I think the iPad is the next step in the process. It has a great form factor and weight. With a webcam (please make this a surprise in March) for video Skyping, iWork for some writing in a more comfortable environment and enough memory for work, photos and entertainment, I can really envision travelling with an iPad rather than the laptop under many circumstances. As well as being computers for everyone, the iPad could also mark the beginning of a paradigm shift in the work habits of the profession geek.
Future hardware from Apple inc. might well include A4 or variant chips as a means to nip cloning in the bud. No original chip in the hardware, no capability to install and run any OSX or software from Apple’s stable.
Hi! Chrissyone! longtime!! oH and goodbye for now.
i believe most people still have not seen the transformation. computers are swiss army knives. laptops are small computers. netbooks are laptops with one testicle removed.
smartphones are swiss army knives as well.
transformations take time, but they have a definitive departure point. the ipad is just a device. it is not a computer. it has a computer in it, but that is very carefully isolated from those who want to use it like the computer they dearly know and love. this is much like your car containing multiple embedded systems. you don’t hear many people call their car a computer or embedded system. why does everyone want to call the ipad a computer and compare its functionality to existing computers?
what differentiates the ipad from your tv’s remote is this “device” can be user configured. it can be best in class for the things the user wants. that’s why the pundiots cannot figure out its functions and call for “killer apps” this is so 1990. its success will be based on how many people can find a positive value proposition to use this device and its software based reconfigurations and fit it in the lifestyle they want.
what is so ironic about mac’s and apple is it is a closed architecture so the user has real choice. think about that for a while.
ipad will transform lifestyles as the ipod and iphone have done. it takes a little more intellect to figure out exactly how, because there may not be a pre-existing model to google. most pundiots lack the imagination to do this.
@Derek Currie
You’re spot on…
There will always be those who hope/wish/dream that a computing device will do what they wish, without them having to dirty their hands by actually ever touching a keyboard, a mouse, or even a touchscreen etc. They think they can just sit back, muse for a bit, and then their computing device of the future will have the finished product all done up with a nice little bow on top.
It’ll never happen of course, but it is a nice little dream….
IMO, Apple has not been satisfied with their mobile CPU options since the G3. In circa-1997 the G3 CPU provided good performance and leading power efficiency. By the time the G5 rolled around, however, the best mobile CPU available to Apple was the previous generation G4, and it no longer offered leading performance relative to mobile versions of Intel CPUs.
At that time Apple made the astute judgment that the Intel development roadmap was far more appealing than the dismal future of PPC, and warranted the costs and risks of the transition. If Apple had not gone with Intel four years ago, I suspect that sales of Macs would have declined substantially by now. Apple did not offer the CPU volume to make continued development of the desktop PPC financially viable. Ironically, however, the G3/PPC750 lives on as a very capable embedded, low-power processor.
Even after the successful transition to Intel, I believe that Apple felt that more was needed in the mobile CPU space in order to achieve desired performance and functionality along with reasonable battery life. As a result, the iPod and iPhone use ARM CPUs and Apple developed the A4 for the iPad to further bridge that gap.
My judgment is that you will not see Apple-designed (or non-Intel sourced) CPUs in Apple Macs and Macbooks until:
(1) Apple no longer needs the Intel trump card to grow Mac sales by providing Windows-compatibility
and/or
(2) Apple develops or sources a CPU that is so much better than existing or near-term Intel alternatives from the standpoint of power/performance that it represents the obvious path forward.
Apple is not afraid to take leaps forward has more flexibility to make major changes than its competitors because it controls both the hardware and software sides of the equation.
@Moo
I think you just dropped a couple.
Has your voice risen a few octaves, squeaky boy?
Instead of worrying about a big bod six-pack 8 core dinosaur, you’d be better off growing a pair yourself.
My Steroid Neoteric fits in my shirt pocket and projects a 5120 x 3200 Quad HD image 2 feet in front of me. All this while I was sitting in the park, listening to iTunes flying a turbo kite and just glancing at the HUD every so often while Avatar was finishing a 2-pass rendering in just half an hour. It cost $599 after trading in my 8 core DoodleFlip Rooftop Mark 2 with triple 30″ ACDs. It would have cost less but I had to pay the guy to do a helicopter lift on the 8 core.
btw my SN runs real good on on Olive Oil.
Extra virgin of course.
If you get my meaning…….
@ Rob
You’re too in love with your shiny hammers.