wraggster
September 16th, 2012, 20:05
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2012/09/img0137-1347470713.jpg (http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/15/anandtech-apple-iphone-5-a6-custom-soc-1-gb-ram/)Unsurprisingly, Apple left us in the dark regarding some specifics of the iPhone 5 (http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/12/iphone-5-hands-on-video-details/) upon its release. Thankfully, the good folks over at Anandtech have done a bit of digging into those numbers you see bordering Apple's Apple A6 SoC (http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/12/iphone-5-processor/), definitively figuring out that Cupertino's latest phone packs in a total 1GB of Samsung-sourced memory. The site clocks the DRAM inside at 1,066Mhz, noting that it's comprised of "two 512MB dies in a dual-channel LPDDR2 (http://www.engadget.com/tag/LPDDR2) package with 32 bits per channel." Further,Anandtech lists the the speed of the iPhone 5's memory at 8,528MB/sec -- an ample 33 percent boost over the 6,400MB/sec rating for the RAM in the iPhone 4S, but well below the 12,800 MB/sec needed to drive the new iPad's (http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/16/apple-ipad-review-2012/) bandwidth-hungry screen resolution.
Beyond that, the site believes that the A6 is Apple's first truly in-house creation, as it's using math units too new to be found in a ARM Cortex-A9 architecture (like the A5 or A5X (http://www.engadget.com/tag/a5x/)) but reportedly isn't a match for the soon-to-be-released Cortex-A15 (http://www.engadget.com/tag/CortexA15/). If true, the implication is significant -- it suggests Apple is taking the more aggressive path of a chip designer like Qualcomm and custom-tailoring large parts of its processor designs to get the speed it wants on a more exacting schedule. That's a quick summation of the details; hit up the source links below if you want the explanation in full geek speak.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/15/BBB-apple-iphone-5-a6-custom-soc-1-gb-ram/
Beyond that, the site believes that the A6 is Apple's first truly in-house creation, as it's using math units too new to be found in a ARM Cortex-A9 architecture (like the A5 or A5X (http://www.engadget.com/tag/a5x/)) but reportedly isn't a match for the soon-to-be-released Cortex-A15 (http://www.engadget.com/tag/CortexA15/). If true, the implication is significant -- it suggests Apple is taking the more aggressive path of a chip designer like Qualcomm and custom-tailoring large parts of its processor designs to get the speed it wants on a more exacting schedule. That's a quick summation of the details; hit up the source links below if you want the explanation in full geek speak.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/15/BBB-apple-iphone-5-a6-custom-soc-1-gb-ram/