Unknown iPad running on A6-based processor shows up in app analytics log

14 Comments

“MacRumors has received word from a developer who has seen evidence of a previously unknown ‘iPad3,6’ device showing up in his app analytics,” Eric Slivka reports for MacRumors.

“Most interestingly, the device’s processor targets the new ARMv7s architecture that supports the custom A6 system-on-a-chip found in the iPhone 5,” Slivka reports. “This new iPad thus appears to be running either an A6 chip itself or a variation on Apple’s custom A6 design.”

Slivka reports, “It is unclear exactly what this new iPad device represents… This new iPad3,6 does not appear to represent the “iPad mini” reportedly scheduled for launch later this month…””

Read more in the full article here.

14 Comments

    2. The new new iPad, to be released in March, will use something like A6X, not A6, which has narrower system bus than A5X because it fits for smaller resolution devices such as iPhone and non-retina iPad mini.

      So A6X will have twice wider system bus, like A5X, and will have much more GPU power.

      The thing with GPU is that to be as fast as iPad 2, but with quadrupled resolution, in A5X Apple had to quadruple GPU power comparing to A5.

      However, Apple only managed to double it, so the new iPad is twice slower than it has to be in 3G graphics. It is not Apple’s fault, though — there was limitation of 45 nm chip manufacturing process. A5X was already like hugest SoC ever, so they could not make it any faster with this power consumption.

      With move to 32/28 nm manufacturing processes, Apple easily managed to create low consuming A6 with the same GPU power as that huge A5X SoC.

      And there is room for much better graphics power, which is not needed for iPhone/iPad mini yet. So new new iPad in March will use A6X which will finally match speed of iPad 2, but in quadrupled resolution.

      Reply

Reader Feedback

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Tags: , , , , , ,