The new A5 system-on-a-chip in the iPad 2 has been said to have a dual core processor which has up to 2x the power of its predecessor, the A4. If you review the actual words Steve Jobs used when announcing the new iPad though, you’ll note he says “two processors inside” right after he read “dual-core processors” off the slide. It is a distinction that is quite meaningful because if “dual core” meant a Cortex A9 CPU, then the iPad 2 would be much more than “up to twice as fast on CPU performance.” Given the low power draw of the new SoC, it’s reasonable to speculate that what they have done is cram two low-power Cortex A8?s in there, rather than a single Cortex A9. It is widely assumed that the graphics chip inside the A5 is the PowerVR SGX543: with a render rate of 40 million polygons per second and a fillrate of 1 Gpixel/sec at 200 MHz. This chip would certain live up to the claim of “up to 9x faster graphics.” However, all the extra processing all draws power and with the battery life being held constant relative to the first generation iPad, this would mean that the power draw of the CPU has been dramatically reduced. A dual core Cortex A9 running in “power optimized” mode yeilds only 800 MHz, short of the 1GHz Apple was claiming. Steve Jobs claimed that his “chip wizards” came up with the new A5 design, indicating that the team which was able to squeeze 67% faster clock speed out of the iPhone 4 and iPad’s single Cortex A8 relative to the same chip in the iPhoen 3GS may have been able to achieve the same feat with two A8s. The term “dual-core” usually refers to two processing cores on the same silicon die, but this is fairly loose terminology.What seems unquestionable is that Apple is going the route of pushing the speed and efficiency of ARM processors in its SoC designs, rather than going with the off-the-sheld hardware. This gives a few advantages over the medium term. They can keep costs low by going with older chip sets rather than the latest-and-greater technology and second when future SoC’s do incorporate  faster chips like the A9, they will be able to squeeze more power out of them and longer battery life than their competitors. What do you think of Apple’s move with the A5 chip? Let us know in the comments below! As usual stay tuned for more tech news and info by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feed. [Source: TiPB] Authors:

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