A5Processor
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iPhone 4S has 512 MB RAM, iFixit and Anandtech verify
It's official. We kept hearing that the iPhone 4S has "only" 512 MB of RAM, not the 1 GB that everyone was hoping for. But we wouldn't believe it until iFixit finished their teardown today. Their results are official -- the iPhone 4S contains 512 MB of RAM. How could they tell? The code on the A5 processor highlighted in red by iFixit in the photo at the top of this post has a string denoting "E4E4". According to Anandtech, each E4 indicates a separate 2 Gb LPDDR2 die. That's 4 Gb altogether, or 512 MB of LPDDR2 RAM. Before you get too upset, note that Anandtech posits that faster and/or more RAM would have affected the iPhone 4S battery life, and that it may take a year for processor technology to progress to the point that iPhone users can have speed, RAM, and the battery life they desire.
Chipworks tears down Apple's A5 chip
Your inner (and outer) geek will thank you for checking out Chipworks' teardown of the A5 processor inside the iPad 2. Chipworks confirms that it is, in fact, made by Samsung and not by TSMC despite Apple's new deal with the latter. This may change in the future, however, especially if the A5 features in the next-generation iPhone. The 120 square millimeter processor is more than twice the size of the original iPad's A4 processor (53 square millimeters). While it's still a fairly uncustomized, off-the-shelf version of the A5, its contributions to the impressive performance gains of the new iPad 2 are not to be sneered at. Chipworks says "we have to de-layer the chip down to a level where we can see the block layout of the chip; not an easy thing when there's nine layers of metal!" Sounds like fun. "In fact, these days it's easier to go in from the back and remove the substrate silicon, and look at the gate level from below. Then we can identify the circuit blocks that make up the full device." Don't try this at home, children. [via CrunchGear]
Exclusive: The future of the iPad 2, iPhone 5, and Apple TV, and why Apple is shifting its mobile line to Qualcomm chipsets
We've been hearing a ton of rumors about what direction Apple's next set of products will take and when they'll be available -- but now we've got some concrete information from reliable sources which should make the path a little clearer. And that includes info on the next iPad, the iPhone 5, the second iteration of the new Apple TV, and a big change coming for all of the company's mobile products. Want to know the scoop? Read along after the break to get the goods.
