Ars Technica is reporting on Apple’s A4 chip that will be used to power the forthcoming iPad. Little has been said by Apple regarding the chip, but many have speculated the chip will be based on the latest Cortex A9 multi-core design.
Jon Stokes of Ars passes down information from several sources which claim the new processor is in fact based on the Cortex A8, which is what is used to power current iPhones and iPod touches.
As I watched the videos and read the reports of the iPad in action at the launch event, I was thoroughly convinced that the device was built on the out-of-order Cortex A9, possibly even a dual-core version. But it turns out that the the A4 is a 1GHz custom SoC with a single Cortex A8 core and a PowerVR SGX GPU. The fact that A4 uses a single A8 core hasn’t been made public, but I’ve heard from multiple sources who are certain for different reasons that this is indeed the case. (I wish I could be more specific, but I can’t.)
So, it appears the main difference between the Apple’s A4 chip (other than including a GPU on the same die) and the chips powering current iPhone and iPod touches is the clock speed. The A4 runs at 1Ghz, and the iPhone chip runs at 600Mhz.
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