“Apple broke with the consumer electronics industry’s accepted wisdom by designing its own processor chips for the upcoming iPad tablet computer,” Paul Boutin reports for VentureBeat.
“I’ve been goading readers who work in the chip biz to tell us why,” Boutin reports. “Last week, I published a set of emails from engineers, some of them ex-Apple. That post prompted a couple of more insidery sources to come out. Engineers sure love correcting reporters, and hurray for that.”
Boutin wants to know, “How exactly does the A4 chip deliver a claimed 10 hour battery life AND keep from burning your hands on the iPad?”
In an update, Boutin reports, “A very trusted source tells me: ‘PA Semi didn’t do the A4. It was the existing VLSI team. Apple has made custom chips for years like the Northbridges for G4 and G5.'”
Full article here.
[Attribution: MacNN. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Oh yeah, I knew that.
Which means… what?
It’s still Apple.
I’m a Mac and the A4 was my idea.
Meaning that PA Semi will probably only create iPhone/iPod chips and that Apple could design their own chips for Macs as well.
The question is: why don’t they do that already? The old G4s and G5s could beat a Pentium 4 to death with their better architecture! Remember that Apple only stepped out of PowerPC due to IBM’s laziness.
Also worth remembering is the fact that just because they can theoretically create a “G6” (or would it be A6?), it doesn’t mean they can’t do it without leaving x86 (so no other software transition required)
I had a feeling that the PA Semi team wasn’t responsible for the A4 chip, or they would’ve made a bigger deal out of it. Then there’s a confusion in the marketplace with A4 vs the Cortex-A8, etc. chips. Wouldn’t the A4 seem inferior to an A8 chip? One would think why Apple went with that naming scheme. Does the “A” in A4 refer to the “ARM” architecture, rather than “Apple”?
I hope someone runs a sunspider javascript benchmark, that would give us a first indication of the general-purpose-power of the A4. PA semi or not, that does not really matter.
All this A4 and A6 talk is fine but for real performance they’ll want an R8 chip.
Funny, I kept thinking a V8 would have the most power…
@WriterGuy – or at least a full serving of vegetables in every eight ounces.
The A4 was designed by Audi. We all know that.
Seriously MDN, an honest and serious proposal for your consideration. With the advent of the iPhone, iTouch and now the iPad … perhaps it’s time for a name change from MacDailyNews to AppleDailyNews. Do it with enough splash across the web and you may even increase your traffic. The rest of us won’t leave, so you would gain all around.
@ Heinrich,
I believe Audi was preceded by Douglas Aircraft Co. (McDonnell Douglas) with the A4 Skyhawk.
@Ricmac:
That’s probably because they already have a sister website (see link, top left – this page) called iPodDailyNews. At any rate, MacDailyNews is not just a title – It’s a brandname. Lose the brand and you lose readers ability to find you. There are plenty of cases around of businesses who have names that no longer reflect everything they do. Atari for instance no longer makes consoles. It’s forerunner, Activision, never made television sets. IBM is better known today for its processors and components than for the PC it once was famous for. Branding is more important for a business than accuracy of the company name.
R8 works but my Daytona Grey S8 is one powerful Lamborghini-derived ride itself.
I want a GR8 chip myself.
That or maybe some potato chips… Mmmm.
Anyone know what the 4 is, in the A4? My main interest is: Will Apple use thier own chip tech in the i-macs. Is it true that the a4 can run MUCH FASTER, but be too hot for an iPad? How fast can Apple make their own chips? (3.9 ghz?)
Since AMD makes a RISC chip that runs Windows, can Apple make its own chip instead of using Intel? With 4 GPU cores built into the CPU? O.K. Maybe I went to far, but you get the general drift.
“… a couple of more insidery sources to come out.”
Oh, yeah. I’m really going to put a lot of faith in this tidbit.
Hey MDN, I love this site but I HATE those freaking little pop up windows that occur when you mouse over some of the adds. Please STOP these massively annoying things!!!
I suspect know what the 4 stands for but as I have already said it twice on other threads I don’t think I will repeat it again. So those who don’t know can wait and see soon enough.
“They’re grrR8!”
— Tony the Tiger
The “4” in A4 stands for it being a 4x core ARM cortex a9 chip at 1ghz. Compare that to a Snapdragon, which has 2 cores at the same clock speed, no SoC, and I dare say doesn’t deliver that kind of battery life.
@CC of Oz
don’t forget iTunes Store which now does more than “tunes”.
@Audi Driver: As another Audi driver, I concur. R8 Spyder, as the iPad has no lid.
It was elfin’ magic. And those little fuckers are evil.
@Sir Gill Bates: there was another A4 designed by Wernher von Braun, later renamed V2. Even faster, but with side effects, unfortunately….
Shouldn’t the A4 chip be called ‘Letter’ in the USA?
@Anyoneatall
That would make sense since the iPad is close to being the size of a regular 8.5 x 11 piece of paper… (7.47 x 9.56)
You might be on to something here! good work inspector! …
Boutin wants to know, “How exactly does the A4 chip deliver a claimed 10 hour battery life AND keep from burning your hands on the iPad?”
This makes ZERO sense. The less heat produced by the chip the less power it’s wasting. I’d expect a VERY efficient (from a battery life perspective) chip to run cooler than one that’s not so efficient. Is this guy really that dense?
@ Zeke
I only read the article as far as “burning your hands” before I fell asleep.