Apple A4 Processor Teardown

Plocmstart writes "Here's what EETimes.com is claiming to be the first teardown of the A4 processor. 'Apple's iPad chip is a single-core ARM A8 made by Samsung. Through various benchmarking testing, UBM TechInsights was able to find out the details of the A4 processor.'"

Interesting

[Pojut]

Anyone know what Google is planning on stuffing in their new tablet [gizmodo.com]?

Re:No but it does have neon.

[ShakaUVM]

>>Does apple withhold information what code can be generated?

The only officially approved code generation method for the iPad is to send a nicely worded letter to Apple, along with X dollars. In Y months your app will be compiled for you and put up on the app store, for which you'll receive no royalties.

Upshot: display tech dominates battery life

[Anonymous Coward]

They show that power usage is:
0.5 Watts at idle with the display disconnected
1.75 Watts at idle with display at min brightness
4.25 Watts at idle with display at max brightness

They estimate that the A4 CPU uses 0.5 to 0.8 Watts when browsing the web over WiFi.

Conclusion, FTA:

Until display technologies make big moves downward in power consumption the consumer experience of battery life may be driven as much or more by the LED drivers, opto-mechanical design of the back-lighting, display settings and wireless connectivity employed versus the CPU itself.

Re:also, multicore?

[devjj]

Apple's just proving the point that consumers don't care how "fast" a chip is if the experience is that the device is fast.