iPhone 4G rumored to use Apple’s A4 processor
Following the astonishing exposé of what seems almost certainly to be the Apple iPhone 4G, with what appears to be some impressive advancements in terms of design and hardware, some additional reports have surfaced suggesting that the next-gen iPhone is likely to use Apple's A4 application processor (AP). Designed in-house by the company and already featured in the iPad, the A4 chip is a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) design with an ARM Cortex-A8 core clocked at 1GHz, paired with a PowerVR SGX535 graphics processor. Tests by the experts over at Anandtech have established that the new chip as used in the iPad provides performance around twice as fast as the iPhone 3GS and about 37% faster than the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon-equipped Google Nexus One.
Currently, the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch use 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8-based processors designed and manufactured by Samsung with input from Apple, but with the switch to an AP of their own design, Samsung is set to be relegated to a manufacturing role only. A high-ranking industry official stated "iPhones have been using Samsung Electronics-produced APs that were partially designed by Apple engineers. But Apple has decided to use its own AP for its 4G models."
We were all expecting the next iPhone to get a processor upgrade, but for it to get a version of the A4 processor is definitely exciting news. The chip has already proven its prowess in the iPad and is also capable of HD video playback. Could the iPhone 4G be getting the same capabilities and perhaps even HD video recording?
[Korea Times via Ubergizmo]
