Tear down the iPad , and you see that the internals arequite similarto the iPhone ’s , albeit nested behind a giant battery . Tear down Apple ’s fresh A4 central processing unit , though , and you see just how deep the similarities run .
iFixitpartneredwith semiconductor turnabout technology firm Chipworks to crack into Apple ’s semi - deep A4 scrap , which is the proprietary brain the powers the iPad — and presumably the ware of Apple ’s attainment of processor caller PA Semi . Here ’s what they discover : A single core subdivision Cortex A8 processor , and what face and performs like a PowerVR SGX 535 GPU . ( Though the GPU could n’t be IDed for certain . )
Here ’s the affair : The iPhone employ an ARM Cortex A8 processor , just at a dispirited clockspeed . The PowerVR SGX 535 GPU is what ’s in the iPhone 3GS . In terms of processor computer architecture and graphics capacity , the iPad is , again , just a full-grown iPhone — not to mention the fact that it has the same paltry 256 mebibyte of RAM .
In other word , the A4 was built with terms and major power consumption in judgement , not cutting boundary functioning . iFixit even goes so far as to say , “ there ’s nothing revolutionary here , ” which , well , ha !
Of naturally , this wo n’t change anyone ’s perceptions of how the iPad performs ( it ’s fast , and graphics rendering is impressive ) , nor should it . But it does say a lot about Apple ’s path for the future : This is yet another announcement by Apple that raw hardware specs in portable devices — the kind of hooey we geek out about on a unconstipated basis , but just us — aren’t what issue , to Apple or their customers . It ’s all about the experience . Oblivious , direct experience .
More pictures atiFixit , with continuing analysis atChipworks .
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