Hasta La Gadget!

Ever so gently, we’re starting to peel away the layers of mystery surrounding the A4 system-on-chip that powers Apple’s fancy new slate device. iFixit, helped by reverse engineering firm Chipworks, have gone to the trouble of both dissecting and X-raying the iPad’s central processing hub in their quest to lift the veil of ignorance. Their findings confirmed that the A4 is built using a “package on package” method, meaning that the 256MB of Samsung-provided SDRAM is stacked immediately atop the CPU, which is noted as being reductive to both latency and energy use. With a single core processor inside, the iFixit team concluded the iPad had to be running on a Cortex A8 — which is very much the likeliest choice at this point — but their assertion that it couldn’t be a Cortex A9 MPCore inside is inaccurate, as those chips also come in single-core options. Either way, it’ll be interesting to see how it stacks up against Samsung’s Hummingbird chip, which was designed by Intrinsity, the same company Apple is being rumored to have recently acquired. Finally, the visual inspection of the iPad’s mobo puts a model number to the already known PowerVR GPU, narrowing it down to the SGX 535, while also naming and picturing a number of other exciting components, such as the always popular capacitive touchscreen controller. Hit the source link below for all the lurid images.

Apple’s A4 system-on-chip gets decoupled from iPad, investigated with the help of an X-ray originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 05:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Up until now, a shroud of mystery has surrounded Apple’s custom engineered A4 system-on-chip; we know it’s clocked at 1GHz, likely tied to Apple’s prior acquisition of P.A. Semi and manufactured by Samsung. Outside of that, the only other knowledge we’ve gained has come not from the mouth of Cupertino, but from the extracting wizards over at iFixit. The A4 contains at least three layers of circuitry layered on top of each other, though it’s packaged just like the iPhone processor: microprocessor in one package and two memory modules in the other package. We also learned that the iPad RAM is actually inside of the A4 processor package, and we’re expecting to learn even more from those folks in the coming days. All that said, there’s still much debate on whether Apple’s own silicon can stand up to Qualcomm’s heralded 1GHz Snapdragon, the chip powering Google’s Nexus One among other things. AnandTech pitted their iPad against the iPhone 3GS (600MHz ARM Cortex A8) and the aforesaid Nexus One (1GHz Snapdragon QSD8250), using a number of website loads as the primary benchmark. Overall, the A4 proved to be around 10 to 30 percent faster, though it’s impossible to say what effect the operating system has on things. Have a gander at that source link for more — we get the feeling the competitions have just begun.

Apple’s A4 SoC faces Qualcomm Snapdragon in knock-down-drag-out benchmarking test originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Apr 2010 01:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like a smartphone, it has a smartphone’s form factor, operating system, and an extra-slim slideout QWERTY keyboard, yet Inbrics still insists on calling the M1 a Mobile Internet Device instead. When the company’s not busy sinking its own battleships, it appears to be doing actually beneficial stuff, such as cramming a new 1GHz Samsung CPU inside its device. The original 800MHz unit was the thing that worried us most during our otherwise praise-filled hands-on experience with the M1 at CES, so it’s a good sign to see it getting a bit of extra brawn ahead of launch. The software has also moved with the times, with Android 2.1 being the current OS on tap, which should look rather nice on that 3.7-inch OLED display. The M1 will have WiFi, but no cellular connectivity is planned just yet. It’s all dependent on having a Western vendor pick up the hardware and infuse it with its own requirements. Although at CES we were told to expect the M1 in March, the current timetable is for a July launch in Korea and US availability by the end of the year, provided Inbrics finds a partner for the device. Netbook News have also finally squeezed a price out of the company and have been told to expect it in the “low $200” range. Sounds kinda promising, don’t you think?

Inbrics M1 gets Android 2.1 and CPU bump to 1GHz, insists on being called a MID originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While the verdict is still out with regard to consumer appetites for a 3rd portable computing device, PC makers are betting the farm on consumer interest in tablets that fill the gap between small-screened smartphones and bulky (by comparison) netbooks/laptops. We’ve already seen an uptick in tablet devices on display at the big CES and CeBIT trade shows, now tablet and MID device vendors look ready to blow out Computex when it kicks off on June 1st in Taipei. According to Roy Chen, ARM’s ODM manager for worldwide mobile computing, more than 50 ARM-based tablet PCs will launch in 2010 starting in Q2 with “a lot more” landing in the third quarter — a date that just happens to line-up with the most optimistic Chrome OS launch schedule. ARM’s seeing so much interest that it had to rent additional floor space to show off the devices. Chen said that many of the tablets are slated for China although all of the world’s top 10 carriers have signed up as well. ARM was showing off two Android based tablets at the press event, including the 7-inch Compal device (pictured above) we gave a whirl at CES. Let’s just hope that tablet makers have plans for some compelling content and service hook-ups with a focus on the user experience — 50 near-identical slabs of touchscreen computing won’t generate much enthusiasm around here.

Over 50 ARM-based tablets launching this year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The early belief that the PSN was spreading a brickitis infection to PS3s around the world has turned out to be not quite accurate. Yes, PSN was inaccessible over that extremely stressful day (for PS3 owners, the rest of us have been quite fine, thank you), but we’re hearing from Eurogamer that the villain in this story was an ARM chip inside the console — the very same one, in fact, that led to a few Zunes losing their minds back in 2008. The big problem here was simply a bit of hardware that couldn’t get its bearings straight after expecting 2010 to be a leap year, and the arrival of March 1 “fixed” everything for all eight affected PS3 SKUs (of a total of eleven). That leaves Sony with four years to make sure this problem isn’t heard from again, and if it doesn’t, we’ll be placing blame for the real 2012 apocalypse firmly on Howard Stringer‘s shoulders.

The apocalyPS3 ends in global resurrection, ARM chip at fault originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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