Search Results
During ARM’s Q3 financial results announced today, 9to5Mac noticed this little gem:
including a license for ARM’s 2GHz implementation of a dual core Cortex-A9 processor.
We’ve heard about the Cortex A9 before. Purportedly, is 5x faster than an intel Atom, yet uses the same amount of power in a 60% smaller package.
Could this be for next year’s iPhone? For a mythical (maybe even second generation) iTablet? We don’t know, but 9to5mac speculates:
Apple is rumored to be an ARM licensee and that that they’ve reportedly split the PA Semi group up into two parts. One working on Smartphone chips the other working on tablet processors. It is now generally accepted that the Apple tablet will run a ARM Cortex processor. It will likely want a bit more horsepower than the ARM Cortex A8-class Samsung chip inside the iPhone 3GS.
Whether or not it’s Apple, the PA Semi group is working on something, even if it won’t be until next year that we get to see it. Anyone else care to speculate?
While the entire industry is increasingly painted as breathlessly holding their breath for an Apple iTablet sometime in 2010, the New York Times re-affirms they’ve been working on just such a device since at least 2003:
“It couldn’t be built. The battery life [using PowerPC chips] wasn’t long enough, the graphics performance was not enough to do anything and the components themselves cost more than $500,” said Joshua A. Strickland, a former Apple engineer whose name is on several of the company’s patents for multitouch technology.
More essential than that, even as technological hurdles were cleared over the years, the idea kept getting shot down by Apple CEO Steve Jobs because no one could answer the question of “what they were good for besides surfing the Web in the bathroom”.
Ultimately, Apple’s experiments with a Safari Pad were leveraged into making and marketing the iPhone instead — something Jobs, and users, obviously found more compelling.
Arguably, the same problem still exists. Apple’s own hardware (like PA Semi chipsets), software (like iTunes LP and iTunes Extra), and industry rumors over print-derived content (like magazines, books, newspapers, etc.) add sub-plots even while the main storyline is still getting fleshed out.
Not lost, however, is that while competitors have tried to evangelize the tablet concept for a decade and received nearly zero traction, the mere thought of a post-iPhone Apple iTablet has achieved so much media buzz the category itself has seen a re-birth from a variety of players.
Apple’s would likely have 85,000 iPhone apps (possible 100,000 by launch), which — as has been speculated before — could run, several at a time, each in their own window like on a desktop system, along with full screen versions of Safari, iPod, and whatever i-app shows dynamic “print” media.
If the iTablet ends up being real, and being “All your media in your hands”, Apple might have a story of their own finally worth telling. Then we’ll just have to see if people buy it.
Apple announced today that Bruce Sewell is joining their executive team as General Counsel & Senior Vice-President, reporting directly to CEO, Steve Jobs.
“We are thrilled to have Bruce join our executive team, and wish Dan a very happy retirement,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With Bruce’s extensive experience in litigation, securities and intellectual property, we expect this to be a seamless transition.”
So looks like Apple’s chipset, patents and IP, and antitrust knowledge-base just got some formidable new muscle…
iTablet rumors, paused for a week to allow some Apple Music Event rumors, are returning full force with a fresh batch straight from Taiwanese suppliers, who say the device will launch in February 2010. According to Taiwan Economic News:
The tablet PC features a 9.6-inch screen, finger-touch function and built-in HSPDA (high speed download packet access) module, and adopts a P.A. SEMI processor chip and long lasting battery pack, selling for between US$799 and US$999.
Given that Apple has a fairly regular product calendar, with iPhone OS Beta in March, WWDC and iPhone release in June, iTunes and iPod in September, and Mac events scattered in-between when new designs are ready, and especially considering Macworld in January is no longer on Apple’s calendar, but we’ve all gotten used to giant product events at the beginning of the year… a February date makes some sense.
Not being locked to Macworld also means no firm date for the rumored release, so Apple can wait until the last minute and, venue availability not withstanding, hold it whenever the product is ready. Meaning, even if the February rumor is solid now, it’s a moving target.
As to the specs, sounds like the rumors we’ve heard to date, though HSPDA does conflict with previous Verizon rumors (which still runs EVDO rev-A). It would be nice to finally see those Apple-spun PA Semi systems on a chip, however…
Enough of our rumor ruminations, what do you think? Sound plausible?
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
On Friday, Apple shipped Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, their latest computer operating system (which is jailbreaker safe!), and for the first time focus wasn’t on fabulous new consumer-facing features, but on internal re-architecting, the (far too often quoted) refinements and enhancements.
Many of these advancements, as we’ve discussed before, were leveraged from work done for the iPhone version of OS X. QuickTime X, with its yellow trim bars and built-in sharing are an obvious example.
We’ve already seen Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard technology like Data Detectors cross-over to the iPhone, but with this newest, arguably greatest version of Mac OS X now on the market, what can we look forward too for the next generation(s) of iPhone OS X?
Where there’s this many iTablet rumors, there just has to be an actual product Steve Jobs is finally happy with and will be unveiling to the world at a special Apple event in early 2010, right?
That’s what Apple Insider is reporting. The gist is as follows:
- 10″, 3G networked device similar to “a jumbo iPod touch”
- Guided by Steve Jobs from hospital, home, and work
- Culmination of at least 6 previous prototypes Jobs vetoed
- Will launch in first quarter of 2010
- Verizon may be the carrier
- Delays caused by lack of satisfaction over Intel Atom power consumption
- Hence Apple bought PA Semi to build in-house, custom chipset based on ARM
Check out the full article, linked above, for more.
Still and all, even if this is real, Bill Gates has been trying to push the tablet concept for almost a decade with little or no mass market acceptance. Can Apple work another product category miracle, doing for the tablet and e-book form factor what they’ve done for the MP3 player and smartphone?
Can Apple take the tablet from geek niche to consumer necessity? Or is this doomed to Apple TV “hobby” status from the get go?
Check out our fancy new blog poll, below, and let us know!
Following up on rumors of a $800 Apple netbook, MacBook, iTablet, etc. VentureBeat reports that Apple might also use the new platform to introduce their long-rumored custom system-on-a-chip.
This would be the result of Apple purchasing fabless chip design firm Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) and hiring Papermaster from IBM and graphics processor (GPU) gurus x2 from AMD/ATI (though whether or not it includes the ARM and PowerVR licenses for cores found in the iPhone and iPod touch, or beefier Intel chips found in the Mac line is uncertain).
While Steve Jobs said PA Semi was going to be used for iPods and iPhones, VentureBeat claims the team was actually split in two, half for iPod/iPhone and half for the tablet.
TUAW speculates that, given recent news of problems between Apple and Nvidia, who currently makes the Mac integrated chipsets, perhaps Apple will push the custom work into that line as well.
Either way, we’ve seen the huge benefit shared software technology has provided for the iPhone and Mac (Spotlight, QuickTime X to name but two), Apple going in-house with the chipsets could be just as beneficial…
CNET has an interesting post up detailing what we can expect in the next generation ARM processor. Just yesterday we took a look at the iPhone 3G’s ARM 11 vs. the new iPhone 3G S’ Cortex ARM8 and the difference was impressive — most impressive. Well, next year is promising a dual-core ARM Cortex A9…!
Icebike sent this in, wondering out loud: “Is it too soon to start speculating on 2010?” And the simple answer is “no, no it’s not!” It’s longstanding practice here at TiPb to wait a polite 1.372 seconds after a new iPhone model is introduced, and then begin with “So, next year–”
That spirit in mind, TiPb can’t help but wonder what this, combined with multi-core PowerVR GPU’s, wrapped up into custom system-on-chips by Papermaster, the PA Semi team, and all those new GPU gurus toiling away in Steve’s basement, means for a 2010 iPhone? (No, I won’t call it an iPhone HD — yet!)
At the very least, I think DC comics is going to have to invent us a faster Flash!
Apple Insider reveals that:
Sources have now reported that Apple has detailed that Imagination’s PowerVR SGX is indeed the graphics processor used in the iPhone 3G S, and that it is “designed for OpenGL ES 2.0.” The new 2.0 specification of OpenGL for Embedded Systems eliminates most of the fixed-function rendering pipeline for a programmable approach to 3D rendering using shader programs.
So while we’re not yet getting that PA Semi + multicore ARM/PowerVT + OpenCL + Papermaker + ATI gurus system on a chip we’ve been fantasizing about this year… we’re still getting a clear focus on speed from Apple. And that’s a Good Thing.
Oh, and yeah, that’s totally the Kingdom Come Flash trouncing his golden age and silver age counterparts in the graphic above. /geek.
With WWDC 2009 only two weeks away, the many rumors and leaks and informed guesses seem to have coalesced into a somewhat unified view of what we probably will — and probably won’t — see if/when the next generation iPhone 2,1 is announced. Given the full version upgrade number (the original iPhone 2G is 1,1, the iPhone 3G is 1,2) we’d expect there to be more in the way of hardware changes than we saw last year with the addition of “just” 3G and GPS. Will those expectations be met? We have a pretty good handle on the iPhone 3.0 software, but what about the hardware?
