CortexA9
Latest
Apple's A4 system-on-chip gets decoupled from iPad, investigated with the help of an X-ray
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.
EAFT Magic Tile and Compal tablets shown in India, Tegra 2 and Android in tow
We heard earlier this month that half a hundred ARM-based tablets would be launching this year, and it's pretty safe to say that these will be two of 'em. Shown off recently in Mumbai, India's own EAFT spurred interest with its Magic Tile, a presumably Billy Mays-endorsed Tegra 2-based tablet that runs on Android. We're told that it's equipped with a 7-inch touch panel (1,024 x 600 resolution), a front-mounted 1.3 megapixel webcam for video chats, 1080p video encoding / decoding abilities, optional 3G, a battery good for 8 hours of usage, inbuilt accelerometer, Bluetooth, HDMI output and a USB socket to round things out. All told, it's a pretty well-specced machine, though we're certainly hoping that the design gets a little TLC before it's launched in Q3 for an undisclosed rate. In related news, a Compal tablet was also on display, boasting a similar 7-inch layout, a Tegra 2 chip within, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a 3 megapixel camera and a complete lack of WiFi (gasp!). Head on past the break for a hands-on vid. Update: We thought this thing looked familiar. If you had the same feeling, it's probably because the Magic Tile is actually that ICD Ultra tablet we played with a little while back. Still, "Magic Tile" has a catchy ring to it. [Thanks, Sriram]
ST-Ericsson's U8500 brings dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 to the Android world
Can't get enough of hearing about implementations of ARM's Cortex-A9 MPCore processors? Good. ST-Ericsson's powerhouse U8500 system-on-chip has come a major step closer to appearing in mainstream devices with today's newly announced support for the Android operating system. Having optimized the OS to take advantage of Symmetric Multi Processing -- a method for extending battery life by sharing the load between the two processing cores and underclocking when necessary -- the partner company is now ready to start dropping these 1.2GHz dual-core beasts inside the next generation of smartphones. The claim is that you'll get all that additional power while sacrificing nothing, as devices based on the U8500 would maintain "the cost and power consumption characteristics of a traditional feature phone." We're promised built-in HDMI-out support, 1080p video recording, and 120 hours of audio playback or 12 hours of Full HD video off a 1,000mAh battery -- pledges we'd very much like to see fulfilled.
Texas Instruments introduces ARM-based OMAP 4 SOC, Blaze development platform
Texas Instruments has just made its OMAP 4 system-on-chip official, and garnished the announcement with the first development platform for it, aggressively titled Blaze. We already caught a glimpse of it in prototype form earlier this month, and the thing is quite a whopper -- you can see it on video after the break and we doubt you'll accuse TI of placing form before function with this one. The company's focus will be on promoting innovative new modes of interaction, with touchless gesturing (or "in the air" gesture recognition) figuring strongly in its vision of the future. Looking at the SOC diagram (available after the break), you'll find that its grunt will be provided by the same ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore class of CPU that powers the iPad, though TI claims it will be the only mobile platform capable of outputting stereoscopic 720p video at 30fps per channel. Perhaps its uniqueness will come from the fact that nobody else cares for the overkill that is 3D-HD on a mobile phone, whether it requires glasses or not. It'll still be fascinating to see if anybody picks up the chunky Blaze idea and tries to produce a viable mobile device out of it -- we could be convinced we need multiple displays while on the move, we're just not particularly hot on the 90s style bezel overflow.
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.
ARM demos the Cortex-A9's web browsing skills on video
We've been hearing reports of the ARM Cortex-A9 holding its own with the ever-present 1.6GHz Atom processor for quite a while now, but ARM is now taking advantage of CES to do a bit more up-front boasting -- like this recently-posted video demoing the processor's browsing performance against an average netbook. While it's obviously not entirely scientific, the Cortex-A9 does seem to lag only slightly behind -- which is all the more impressive considering that the ARM is running at just 500MHz compared to the Atom's 1.6GHz. Equally impressive: ARM's fine taste in websites. Head on past the break for the video.
ARM's Cortex-A9 beats Atom N270: too bad it's not 2008
ARM's doing some chest thumping today by revealing a 2GHz clock speed on its dual-core Cortex-A9 processor. The move is meant to remind manufacturers that ARM can scale beyond its traditional smartphone strong-hold and into netbook territories currently dominated by Intel. ARM's even handing out benchmarks showing the Cortex A9 out performing Intel's single-core 1.6GHz Atom N270 -- a processor launched back in 2008. Of course, Intel already ships a dual-core Atom 330 processor with its low-power Pineview processor set to launch on the near-horizon. It's also worth remembering that Windows 7 won't run on ARM so future Cortex A9 smartbooks will have to settle for Windows CE, Android, or perhaps, Google's Chrome OS if you ask politely. ARM is licensing its Cortex A9 speed- and power-optimized technology today with delivery in the fourth quarter of 2009. [Via PC World, thanks Ian]
ARM promises dual-core Cortex A9-based smartphones next year
The world's two most visually engaging smartphones -- the iPhone and the Pre -- share very similar cores based on ARM's Cortex A8 architecture, and with the newer, more advanced Cortex A9 in the pipeline, you can't help but let your mind wander a bit as you envision what twice as much computational power could bring to a handset. The A9 employs more advanced instruction pipelining than its predecessor, but the biggest news has to be the fact that it can pack two or more cores -- and ARM fully expects dual-core A9-based phones to hit in 2010. Of course, power consumption is the biggest constraint when it comes to this category of device, and while the company says that peak drain will exceed that on today's crop of devices, average consumption will actually drop thanks largely to a move from 65nm to 45nm manufacturing processes. Add in 1080p video promised by TI's next-gen OMAP4 silicon wrapped around an A9 core, and you've basically got a home theater in your pocket that's ready to rock for a few hours on a charge. That and Snoop Dogg, of course.
TI's OMAP 4 bringing 1080p support to smartphones and MIDs
Right around this time last year, Texas Instruments was busy showing off its OMAP 3 platform, which enabled 720p playback from a mobile phone. At this year's MWC, we've got a real live handset recording 720p, and TI upping the ante once more with a chip that handles 1080p. For those still with us after being blasted with resolutions, the predictably titled OMAP 4 aims to bring 1080p support, 20 megapixel imaging and "approximately a week of audio play time" to mobiles and MIDs that house it. Granted, TI also calls this stuff "future-proof," so don't believe it's totally incapable of uttering some pretty outlandish stuff. At the heart of the platform is a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 chip, a programmable multimedia engine based on TI's C64x DSP and a POWERVR SGX540 graphics engine. We're told that it'll play nice with Linux variants such as Android and LiMo, Symbian and Windows Mobile, though it'll have to be mighty impressive to outgun NVIDIA's Tegra. Battle on, we say.[Via Linux Devices]
ARM debuts Sparrow multicore netbook processor
We've had our eyes peeled for ARM Cortex-based netbook news, and now among the action this week at MWC '09 we're getting our first look at Sparrow, a Cortex A9 processor aimed squarely at netbook manufacturers. This is a multi-core update to the Cortex A8 (processor of choice for the Palm Pre and Pandora), and it's been speculated that this could be the processor for the next generation iPhone, with "at least triple the computing power of the ARM11 processors found in the [current] iPhone and T-Mobile G1." Toshiba, Pegatron and Wistron are all said to be showing demos of their ARM-powered netbooks at the conference this year, with a company spokesman saying that Ubuntu for ARM will go public in April, with Sparrow phones coming to market sometime in 2010. Additionally, companies like Adobe, On2, and Symbian are said to be "tuning their apps to run on the latest cores from ARM" as we speak.[Via Gadget Mix, Mac Rumors]
