“With an illusory flourish that only Apple could pull off — ‘Focus your attention on this shiny iPad 3!’ — the magicians of Cupertino have quietly started shipping iOS devices with 32nm A5 SoCs,” Sebastian Anthony reports for ExtremeTech.
“So far, the new $399 iPad 2 (iPad 2,4 in Apple nomenclature) and third-generation Apple TV have been confirmed to use the new chip, but it’s also possible that there’s a new generation of the iPhone 4S with a 32nm A5 at the helm,” Anthony reports. “The original A5 SoC (system-on-a-chip), found in the first iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, was built on Samsung’s 45nm process. The A5X SoC in the iPad 3, which has four GPU cores instead of two, is also 45nm.”
Anthony reports. “By moving to Samsung’s 32nm High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process, the new A5 processor (S5L8942) is 40% smaller than its predecessor, uses around 30% less power, and is significantly cheaper for Samsung to produce — thus, no doubt, allowing Apple to retain its fat profit margins on the cut-price iPad 2.”
Read more in the full article here.
Also, it makes it easier to fit into the next iPhone. More battery life? LTE? Both!?
iPad 2: cheaper for apple, cheaper for the consumer, and potentially better battery life.
Talk about Win Win Win for everyone who gets an iPad 2
This frenemy thing is interesting. Samsung makes the chip for Apple, yet they are battling it out in court. I’m sure they build high quality chips but their products in my experience are a different story. I had 2 Samsung phones before my first iPhone 3G. The Samsung phones were crap.
Apple didn’t make any waves about this because they don’t want you to care about the difference between an iPad 2 (2,3) and iPad 2 (2,4). Does make you wonder what’s actually inside of a newly built iPhone 3G or 4 these days.
Hmm, it kinda does. 🙂