{"id":299394,"date":"2010-02-09T19:15:04","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T00:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theappleblog.com\/?p=40658"},"modified":"2010-02-09T19:15:04","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T00:15:04","slug":"the-tangled-web-pa-semi-processors-and-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/299394","title":{"rendered":"The Tangled Web: PA Semi, Processors, and Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

New details have emerged which suggest chip maker Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) might not be the hive mind behind the iPad\u2019s \u201cA4\u201d processor as was widely expected.<\/p>\n

In case you missed it, the A4 is the diminutive custom silicon that lies at the heart of Apple\u2019s new iPad. It\u2019s the wee beasty that has the raw power to make Magic Move work so smoothly in the upcoming Keynote app, while providing the intelligence to manage energy efficiently enough to squeeze 10 hours of actual use out of the iPad between charges. Oh, and it runs at 1Ghz and is fuelled by unicorn tears, or something.<\/p>\n

Anyone with an iPhone (and everyone who has ever relied on laptops to do a days work) knows that there\u2019s usually a big<\/em> difference between a mobile device\u2019s advertised<\/em> and actual<\/em> battery life. So, unless Steve Jobs is lying through his teeth, how exactly does the iPad\u2019s A4 processor manage to deliver its number-crunching goods over such a long period of time? <\/span><\/p>\n

Certainly Apple\u2019s developments in battery design help a lot, but it\u2019s thought that the real magic happens in the custom-designed processor itself. Venturebeat.com\u2019s Paul Boutin has been investigating the A4, and pushing chip engineers for answers. In an article published on the weekend, he offers the following (possible) explanation<\/a>;<\/p>\n

\n

Apple has invested heavily in OpenCL and LLVM, which are technologies to distribute work across multiple CPUs and multiple GPUs. In this Apple is different than other mobile devices: other vendors want video decoding and 3D games at a good rate, but often leave the GPU mostly idle.<\/p>\n

Apple is looking to drive a lot of work through the GPU all the time, as part of any application. For Apple, it makes sense to put a lot of GPU cores in the chip. It even makes sense to put in so much GPU that the chip would overheat, but throttle back the ARM clock speed to leave more thermal envelope for the GPUs to run.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ah, right then. Magic<\/em>. Got it.<\/p>\n

Terribly Clever<\/h3>\n

This all sounds plausible, and makes Apple\u2019s 2008 purchase of PA Semi (a snap at only $278 million) seem like a terribly clever move. And since we have yet to see a new custom brain in any iPhone, the iPad offered the most likely candidate as the first recipient of the chip maker\u2019s special silicon.<\/p>\n

Only, it\u2019s not<\/em>. Boutin adds the following;<\/p>\n

\n

A very trusted source tells me: PA Semi didn\u2019t do the A4. It was the existing VLSI team. Apple has made custom chips for years like the Northbridges for G4 and G5.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So, if the iPad didn\u2019t get the PA Semi treatment as we originally thought, what\u2019s going on? $278 million is an awful lot of money (even for a company with billions in the bank), and I\u2019d have thought we\u2019d start seeing the results of that purchase by now.<\/p>\n

If we haven\u2019t yet seen the full might and majesty of PA Semi\u2019s magic in Apple\u2019s mobile offerings, that might all change soon. After all, we\u2019re just months away from the anticipated 4th generation iPhone…<\/p>\n

Back to Front<\/h3>\n

Maybe I’ve got this all back to front? Was the acquisition of PA Semi — like the more recent acquisition of music streaming service Lala — not so much about Apple getting its hands on new technology, but more about securing the mad skillz\u00a0of new engineers? If that\u2019s the case, the iPad may be the fruits of that acquisition after all.<\/p>\n

Either way, if the next generation iPhone inherits any<\/em> of the genetic characteristics of its iPad big brother, what might we expect from Apple\u2019s next smartphone? A blistering-fast processor, perhaps, light-years ahead of the best competing handset? Insanely long battery life, perhaps two or three days between charges?<\/p>\n

One thing is for sure; last month Steve Jobs very deliberately redefined Apple as a mobile devices company. In the last few years, the company has aggressively enhanced the processing performance and battery life of all its products, from MacBooks to iPods to iPhones and now, of course, the iPad. A breakthrough advancement in one device ultimately migrates across product lines into another, until we\u2019re left with an ecosystem of devices that offer unrivalled power and interoperability. It\u2019s those refinements that have helped sell MacBooks at record levels in spite of a global recession, and allowed the iPhone to steal valuable market share from well-entrenched competitors.<\/p>\n

So with all these remarkable advancements in battery life, power management, custom silicon and hardware\/software interoperability in mind, ask yourself \u2013 what can we expect to see in the next iPhone? Looking at the iPad\u2019s A4 processor as a guide, I\u2019m beginning to think it\u2019ll be the most significant iPhone revision Apple has ever made. And we don\u2019t have very long to wait before we\u2019ll know for sure.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New details have emerged which suggest chip maker Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) might not be the hive mind behind the iPad\u2019s \u201cA4\u201d processor as was widely expected. In case you missed it, the A4 is the diminutive custom silicon that lies at the heart of Apple\u2019s new iPad. It\u2019s the wee beasty that has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}