ARM wrestling: Apple iPad chip to overpower rivals? ( What chip for the new Apple Tablet?)

The Register ^ | 20th January 2010 17:10 GMT | Tony Smith

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The big question is perhaps not whether Apple will announce the eagerly anticipated iPad next week, but what chip will power the media tablet.

Since the device is expected to run a version of the iPhone operating system, and given that battery life is likely to be a key factor in the iPad's success, it's hard to imagine Apple using anything other than an ARM-based processor in there.

It's tempting, after the claims made by Nvidia when it launched its newest Tegra ARM-based system-on-a-chip at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month - dual-core processor, full HD graphics, 15-hour movie-playback battery life - that Apple might have selected this part for the iPad.

But a number of analysts this week said they believe the iPad may well be based on chippery designed by the Mac maker itself. Some of these claims may be circular - they're derived from what other analysts are saying - and we wouldn't want to categorically rule out an Nvidia involvement, but the alleged use of an in-house chip design is appealing.

[wastedyears]

*Mac power on sound*

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

I wonder about this chip...related thread:

Marvell goes Snapdragon hunting, announces Armada 610 mobile processor

*************************EXCERPT******************************

It is another ARM chip design and it's a "gigahertz class" mobile CPU that can not only do 1080p decoding but can handle encoding too, even able to pump pixels to four high-res (2,000 x 2,000) displays at once.

[CodeToad]

“it’s hard to imagine Apple using anything other than an ARM-based processor in there.”

I guess the author isn’t all that knowledgable about processors. The Intel Atom processor is a fantastic processor of the same electrical power but isn’t brian damaged as is the ARM.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Also from RegHardware:

Apple's 'latest creation' debuts January 27

***********************EXCERP***********************************

Apple has invited selected members of the press and industry analysts to an event next Wednesday when the company will almost certainly unveil its massively hyped and long-awaited tablet.

As reported by The New York Times and elsewhere, the invitation for the January 27 "special event" reads: "Come see our latest creation."

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Another from Reghardware:

Apple lawyer smacks Gawker with Mac tablet hint

****************************EXCERPT*************************************

Super-secretive Apple has provided some of the best evidence yet that its long-rumored tablet is on the way. No, not by leaking photos or specs, but instead by threatening a website about soliciting said photos or specs.

On Wednesday, Gawker Media's Valleywag blog announced its Apple Tablet Scavenger Hunt, which offers hefty cash awards to anyone who could provide concrete evidence of the existence of the elusive tablet.

Thursday, Gawker received a letter from Apple's lawyers warning them against soliciting "photos, video, or a sample of an unannounced and highly confidential Apple product."

[NVDave]

The ARM architecture is a good choice for “deeply embedded” apps, like phones, PDA’s and the like, but when you want to run a lot more s/w with demand-paged VM, etc.... we start realizing that ARM isn’t the best way to go. It isn’t so much that the ARM is brain damaged as the reality of when we want to field a phone with all sorts of whizzy features AND we want the battery to last two days in your pocket... choices simply have to be made. MMU’s, FPU’s etc - they have to be left behind.

The ARM’s big advantage is that it really has the lowest power consumption out there (and the current ARM vs. last year’s Atom still gave the ARM the advantage on power consumption, especially when we take the additional chips used with an Atom into consideration), but when we start talking of Windows/OS X as a operating environment, we start expecting more out of the CPU than in the phone/PDA space. The next gen of Atom will take care of this issue tho, and that’s why I’d go with an Atom solution to a tablet over an ARM.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Related thread:

NEWS - Marvell claims first quad-core ARM processor

*******************************EXCERPT*****************************

Marvell's quad-core implementation can operate at above 1-GHz clock frequency on all four cores providing high performance in those applications that can keep four cores fed with data.

[smokingfrog]

Did anyone get a good look at the “data tablets” (or whatever they called them) they were using at CTU Headquarters in the ‘24’ Season 8 premier? I was wondering if they were iPads. Chloe seems to be prominently using a Mac this year.

[CodeToad]

True the ARM is less power, but the Atom is now 1W. The Atom also has the full SSE and floating point capabilities and the ARM doesn’t.

[Swordmaker]

ARM Wrestling? Which chip will power the iTablet... unscrewing the inscrutable when all they have to do is wait a week to find out. PING!

Mac iTablet Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[antiRepublicrat]

Apple didn’t buy PA Semi for no good reason.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Who wants to wait a week...?

I think it would be neat if Apple has build their own chip ,...maybe using the PowerPC design and extending it ....

[Swordmaker]

I think it would be neat if Apple has build their own chip ,...maybe using the PowerPC design and extending it ....

They may be... they bought PA Semiconductor in 2008... a designer of low power custom processor chips for the US military. PA Semi does not have fab facilities but Apple could contract their custom chip fabrication to any number of fabrication companies in China.

[ctdonath2]

On a tangent here:

I predict the “tablet” will be Jobs’ last hurrah, a final masterpiece for his career. Having skirted death with pancreatic cancer, he knows he may very well not have enough left in him to complete a another industry-changing move. There was enough time & resources to pull this one off, and in the near term to get it settled into society, but personal realistic long-term goals do not include yet another industry-rattling culture-changing product. Kudos if he does, but at some point one’s own mortality becomes apparent and one adapts accordingly.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

They fact he is still with us is quite a miracle.

Tough to beat cancer...my wife fought it for 20+ years however before it finally claimed her.....

[SunkenCiv]

...after the claims made by Nvidia when it launched its newest Tegra ARM-based system-on-a-chip at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month - dual-core processor, full HD graphics, 15-hour movie-playback battery life - that Apple might have selected this part for the iPad. But a number of analysts this week said they believe the iPad may well be based on chippery designed by the Mac maker itself.

Intel has settled with AMD/ATI, and gotten cranky with Nvidia, all since Apple switched from Radeon to NVidia in its MacBook line. Thanks Ernest and Swordmaker.

• Apple Files Request to Take iPad Trademark From Fujitsu