Apple's A4 chip is ARM Cortex A9 with an ARM Mali GPU?

For some of us, amid all the hubbub about revolutions and whatnot yesterday, the most significant announcement on hand was Apple's supposedly custom A4 CPU. Alas, in the cold and brutal light of the morning after, we're hearing that it is in fact a system-on-a-chip driven by a Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU "identical" to the one found inside NVIDIA's Tegra 2, while besting the iPhone 3GS significantly with its 1GHz speed and multicore architecture. The A4 is composed of that Cortex barnburner, an integrated memory controller, and the Mali GPU, making it an all ARM affair -- though we still don't know how much Apple and PA Semi did in terms of arranging and integrating those components within the silicon. While still not 100 percent confirmed, it would seem there were no revolutions on the iPad's processing front -- just a rebranded bit of well engineered hardware.

[DrDr Posted Jan 28th 2010 4:47AM]

So its not a giant iPod Touch...

It's a giant Zune HD.

[travisonfire Posted Jan 28th 2010 5:23AM]

@DrDr

isnt zune OS based on windows CE which is a multitasking operating system? definitely better than ifone OS

[Jakob Posted Jan 28th 2010 5:44AM]

@travisonfire iPhone OS can multitask to its very core - Apple just hasn't enabled it on third party apps.

I'm convinced we'll see multi-tasking with iPhone OS 4.0 - remember this thing is only running OS 3.2 and was probably just released so developers could start from day one - they don't have to think of multi-tasking, Apple just needs to enable it..

[cosmicinglewood Posted Jan 28th 2010 5:49AM]

@Jakob probably, just like how they Hid bluetooth 2.1 EDR on the Touch 2G until iPhone OS 3 launched....

[7egend Posted Jan 28th 2010 7:27AM]

@Jakob

I agree. A lot of people who have actually had hands on said they experienced some bugginess and Josh couldn't even search a book. I think Apple just wanted to announce it and get it out there, get developers working on it and focus on the rest of the year with their iPhone and iPod Touch updates as well as the next iPhone OS.

I am just hoping this processor makes it into the next iPhone with 512MB of RAM. I think we saw a reveal of what the iPhone will look like though, with an aluminium backing and a black strip at the top for the receivers.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 28th 2010 7:36AM]

@DrDr

It keeps getting better and better. Can you hear the RDS creaking under the strain?

The Jesustampon has a CELL PHONE processor!!

[Appleman Posted Jan 28th 2010 7:37AM]

@Jakob Exactly. Look at the iPhone 1G on release and the iPhone 1G today. Things have changed fundamentally from the original OS 1.0. When the iPhone was concieved there was no app store.

[moose0422 Posted Jan 28th 2010 8:05AM]

@(Unverified) Actually the Cortex A9 chip is much faster than the Intel Atom processor. Meaning that it is faster then the netbooks out today and since it is dual core then it more powerful than any cell phone chip because there are no phones that have dual core processors that I know of (correct me if I am wrong).

[Eternity Posted Jan 28th 2010 8:35AM]

@Jakob Did you say multi Tasking?
http://www.symbian-guru.com/welcome/2010/01/custom-omnia-hd-rom-runs-50-processes-simultaneously.html

[1ofdakoolkidz Posted Jan 28th 2010 9:15AM]

@moose0422 OK, your wrong. First for mobile phones there is the new QSD8672 snapdragon(dual core 1.5ghz) and for Netbooks there is the Intel Core Duo Processor T2500(2Ghz), if you notice both are faster than the Ipad processor.

[wizzle Posted Jan 28th 2010 10:27AM]

@1ofdakoolkidz You know better than that. GHz doesn't mean faster. Especially considering the A4 is RISC.

[bullshitexpresscom Posted Jan 28th 2010 10:29AM]

@1ofdakoolkidz The Snapdragon chip looks great but to do a fair comparison we will need to see side by side stats. There may be a reason (10 hours of battery life for example) that the A4 is claimed to be better.

[kevinmcintyre Posted Jan 28th 2010 11:03AM]

@1ofdakoolkidz Just to clarify a few things. Firstly, the Qualcomm chipset you mentioned in ARM based, in fact is ARM Cortex based. Secondly, frequency does not determine performance. You need to look the work done per clock cycle.

Roughly speaking iPhone 3Gs (Cortexx A8) is twice as fast as the iPhone 3G. If the core really is a single Cortex A9 (there is nothing to support it is dual core in Apple's release) at 1GHz then it is roughly 2.5 times the performance of the iPhone 3G. If it were an dual Cortex A9 then it would be closer to 4x the performance of the iPhone.

Check out this video for comparison of iPhone 3G vs 3Gs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZOJVUrAAzk

Cheers,
Kevin

[JS Posted Jan 28th 2010 11:39AM]

@bullshitexpresscom

The 10 hour battery life has more to do with the large 25 Whr battery that is in in the device rather than efficiency improvements in the A4 chip.

You cant fit a battery that big in a phone.

[DeFlanko Posted Jan 28th 2010 11:52AM]

@DrDr
BlackSlat3 for iPad here it comes.......

[Nexus Posted Jan 28th 2010 12:07PM]

@Jakob See I dont think so. I dont think iPhone OS will ever do multitasking because apple is scared of the performance going down and things 'chugging' . So you either hold completely back and have people shocked at how fast it is, which is pretty unsurprising in reality because it only does one app at a time, or you enable it and risk tarnishing that reputation for speed. Apple wont do it.

[crappish Posted Jan 28th 2010 12:12PM]

Erm. So basically A4 is just NVIDIA Tegra 250 with different memory controller and GPU? (which by default has CPU, GPU and memory controller in a same chip, with north- and southbridge)
And yes, it's not NVIDIA anymore when you take out their GPU but the idea is basically the same thing.

[lilo Posted Jan 28th 2010 12:29PM]

@Jakob

So, you are saying that iPhone OS can multitask but Apple just hid these features from users. As I see it, the end result for users - no multitasking (well there is some but very limited) so I do not get your point.

[recharged95 Posted Jan 28th 2010 12:46PM]

@7egend Makes sense, would one wait for the iPad for a few months *OR* get a cheaper, more full featured netbook/Android/Tegra/SnapDragon "tablet" in March?

With the CES onslaught of slates, Apple had to do something fast. Give them credit it's good strategy (make Apple fans "wait" instead of buying something else now), but all you need is Amazon to release a better Kindle by April, or Android to thrown down some 1.3Ghz Snapdragon tablet (Nook2), or MS to release something cheaper with ZuneHD and the iPad will be history.

Good strategy, but they just opened a 2month window of opportunity for someone to pull the rug under the iPad.

[ummmwhat Posted Jan 28th 2010 12:58PM]

@Nexus They will. They may limit it to a certain number of apps at a time. But as a user of a jailbroken 3gs, I can tell you that running five or six apps.(never had a reason to try more) doesn't make the phone sluggish at all. In fact, there isn't any noticable slow down at all. I'm in the camp that thinks 4.0 will have it. They really avoided a bunch of topics they usually cover with iPhone announcements and calling it iPhone OS3.2 seems off. It's a different UI why not just call it ipad os 1.0

[logicbombde Posted Jan 28th 2010 2:12PM]

@ummmwhat

Exactly

I multi-task on a jailbroken 3G all the time and there's barely a performance hit at all.

what DOES happen as that as the paltry 128MB of ram gets eaten up, the OS starts killing apps automatically, starting with the 3rd party apps.

I'm gonna bet that if iphone OS 4.0 adds in mulit-tasking, it will only be supported onthe 4th gen iphone and on the 3GS.

2G and 3G won't support multitasking in 4.0 due to "hardware restrictions" just like stereo bluetooth. :/

[MostAmazing Posted Jan 28th 2010 3:06PM]

@Jakob Even if they do release multitasking on 4.0, and put it on the tablet... They sure as hell better include flash or I will personally cuss out Steve Jobs.

[Ali Scissons Posted Jan 28th 2010 3:18PM]

@crappish

System-on-chips existed way before NVIDIA's Tegra hype train. Texas Instruments (guys that make OMAP chips) were in this business long before a lot of these folks.

[kyphem Posted Jan 28th 2010 3:30PM]

@lilo Yes it can multitask, Ipod + web/maps. or phone call + web/maps

[xtasi Posted Jan 28th 2010 4:36PM]

@moose0422 in case anyone doubted you
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/arm-posts-cortex-a9-vs-atom-performance-video-intel-should-be-worried-2010016/
There is a link to an ARM video showing the difference.

Looks like Apple did the netbook they claimed will never do.

[Millah Posted Jan 28th 2010 10:40PM]

@lilo People really should know what their talking about before jumping on the hate bandwagon.

Obviously people don't realize that iPhone DOES multitask right out of the box. Safari, Mail, iPod, and Phone ALL run in the background. Its just that Apple only allows those 4 applications to run in the background, but that IS multitasking. So to say that the platform isn't capable of multitasking is quite arrogant.

And for everyone out there that is jailbroken and has Backgrounder and Proswitcher installed, they all know just how capable the iPhone is at multitasking. Its just as capable as the Pre, and with Proswitcher it uses the exact same card interface as the Pres.

So yes, the iPhone is very capable at multitasking, and even does so right out of the box (limited to those 4 Apple apps). All that needs to be done is for Apple to start allowing all other apps to run in the background and thats it, the OS itself is built to handle multitasking extremely well. And I'm willing to bet money that we are probably going to see Apple start allowing multitasking in OS 4.0, and will probably wrap it all up in a very nice interface for switching between apps. I think we will probably see it make its way onto the iPad first, and then later on to the iPhone. But I think the next hardware revision for the iPhone will have beefed up internals to get ready for multitasking.

[doctorSpoc Posted Jan 29th 2010 12:38AM]

@lilo of course the iPhone multi-task TODAY.. you can play music and do anything else because the iPod app can run in the background. there is nothing technically preventing the iPhone/iPod Touch from multi-tasking.. it's a choice apple has made so the device gets good battery life and app performance and stability.

[TareG Posted Jan 28th 2010 4:48AM]

Can it decode 1080p video and stream it to my HDTV? No? So putting it in the same phrase as Tegra 2 was just another "attempt" to make sense of this mess?

[xconan Posted Jan 28th 2010 5:39AM]

@TareG a Mali video processor is not the same as a NVidia gpu in terms of speed

[JoeRodricks Posted Jan 28th 2010 6:09AM]

No, but it can decode 720p and send it to your TV.

[syragon Posted Jan 28th 2010 7:21AM]

@JoeRodricks
Nope, it can't. According to Apple's very on specs page:

"Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite Cable"

[taligent Posted Jan 28th 2010 8:10AM]

@TareG .. you don't know crap. The PowerVR chip CAN, repeat CAN decode 1080p in real time and send it to a TV without a problem.

The issue is that the iPad doesn't support it which means it is likely a political (think movie companies) rather than a technical decision.

[zelannii Posted Jan 28th 2010 9:28AM]

@syragon
That is the max capability of the VGA connector. However, HDMI is a possibility on the dock connector, and the MALI55 GPU is capable to 1080p, so until we get some additional hadrware options announced in 60 days, please keep to what Jobs spoke, and that included 720p support. We'll dispute other claims when facts are available.

[syragon Posted Jan 28th 2010 1:51PM]

@zelannii
IIRC Steve only said it supports "720p playback", which makes sense .. after all that's the resolution of iTunes' "HD" content - there was not word on 720p output.

And after Apple's recent commitment to Mini-DP i don't believe in an HDMI-adapter until I see one ..

[FraggleRock Posted Jan 28th 2010 4:49AM]

mind goes numb... Apple article overload

[FraggleRock Posted Jan 28th 2010 4:50AM]

of course, at least this article is discussing something tangible

[Shash450 Posted Jan 28th 2010 8:06AM]

@FraggleRock
Ladies... Stop Complaining... They'll only stop when you lot stop posting over 1,000 comments on some of these posts.....................

Why should they stop when people want to comment? Sure most of it is bitching, but people seem to want to make the concious effort to bitch... At least they're giving you the choice to do so..........unlike Steve Jobs

[Alban Posted Jan 28th 2010 8:23AM]

@FraggleRock Hi Fraggle, it is tangible but unfortunately too likely to be wrong. I encourage you to look at the comment on the original article and why it would make little sense...
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/comment/2010/1/27/apple-a4-soc-unveiled---its-an-arm-cpu-and-the-gpu!.aspx#3765

[FraggleRock Posted Jan 28th 2010 8:31AM]

@FraggleRock

You guys might be right, all I know is that after the deluge of articles over the past few weeks, I now begin every sentence with [lowercase] i...

iGive up! iTime to get back to work.

[Karate Tortoise Posted Jan 28th 2010 8:32AM]

@Alban That is just more proof that the iPad is nothing more than an iPod Touch on steroids

[IseWise Posted Jan 28th 2010 4:51AM]

I think this chip is the only good thing about the iPad. It would be pretty sweet to see it in the next iPhone.

[Bahumbug Posted Jan 28th 2010 5:13AM]

@IseWise Just that the next iphone wont come with a 25Wh battery.

[rakeshin Posted Jan 28th 2010 5:16AM]

@Bahumbug it certainly wont have a 10 inch screen either!

[cosmicinglewood Posted Jan 28th 2010 5:52AM]

@cherryboom what is the talk of "eating out" with a name like iPad LOL

[CJisohsocool Posted Jan 28th 2010 4:53AM]

See this is the only thing I liked so far about the iPad announcement.
I just hope they put this and 512mb ram in the next iPhone :]
Maybe give us multitasking is 4.0 =D? Ok maybe not =(

[Jack Posted Jan 28th 2010 2:40PM]

@CJisohsocool

This wasn't in the iPad announcement. So you're basically saying you hated everything about the iPad DESPITE the fact that it runs on a Cortex A9, which it turns out you actually LIKE.

This is the problem with people knee-jerk hating on everything Apple does. You never have the full story.

[Alexandertron Posted Jan 28th 2010 4:57AM]

Ok so there is a GPU!?!?! apple you have my attention. ^_^

Man-o-man, apple you are always pullin a shifty on us. Custom chip my ass. GTFOH

on another note the mobile industry is moving like theres no tomorrow. Arm is in the house. Im scared to spend. every two weeks something is popping up. yikes :''(

[taligent Posted Jan 28th 2010 8:19AM]

@Alexandertron .. The A4 has a PowerVR GPU.

[sonicyoof Posted Jan 28th 2010 4:58AM]

Hey, so did the iSlate ever come out? I've looked all over the front page but I can't find any info about it.

: -(

[drkschmoog Posted Jan 28th 2010 4:58AM]

*strokes cheaper yet superior netbook with 1.6GHz Atom*