Apple Insider reports that Samsung has a 45 nanometer, 1GHz ARM processor, code-named “Hummingbird” on the horizon.
It uses the same Cortex A8 architecture as the current iPhone 3GS (which runs at a clocked-down 600MHz) but due to the smaller size, is said to not consumer any more power or generate any more heat than the current 833MHz generation.
Apple has made huge investments and agreed to large scale licenses of the ARM chip, even as they’re moving ahead with their own, in-Apple chipset initiatives.
So, even if Samsung ships this baby in time there’s still no telling if Apple will use it for a forth generation iPhone, likely to cycle around June 2010.
Still… Zoom. Zoom.
Posted on Saturday, Jun 13, 2009 by Rene Ritchie
File Under:News; Tags: anandtech, arm, arm cortex a8, chipset, cpu, gpu, iphone 3G S, powervr sgx, speeds and feeds
Anandtech gives their usual in-depth look at the processors inside Apple’s new iPhone 3G S. First the CPU, the new ARM Cortex A8 and the short of it is — if the iPhone 2G and 3G were old 486 PCs, the iPhone 3G S would be a Pentium:
As for the GPU, the PowerVR SGX — even if it’s clocked down to half-speed, it’s rendering geometry 3.5x faster with a fill rate 25% higher as well:
Their take away? Well, they say the iPhone 3G S packs a similar hardware punch to the new Palm Pre, but while webOS uses some of that power for 3rd party multitasking, Apple’s “highly optimized software stack” will bring the speed.
And that only scratches the surface. For the gritty details, check out the full article.
[Thanks to Damon for the tip!]
