Less than two weeks to go now before all is revealed about the new iPhone’s specifications, and several potential features are still being hotly debated – notably dissonance over whether the new Apple phone will support Near Field Communications (NFC) for “digital wallet” capability or not. A fresh rumor this week is that the new Apple phone could be powered by a quad-core A6 SoC after all. That would certainly be interesting, as it would make the new iPhone more powerful than the current New iPad for presumably another half-year, assuming that the fourth generation iPad will be rolled out in March, 2013.
Of course, it looks like we’re going to see an iPad mini sometime in October, but I’m pretty confident in anticipating that it will share most internal specs. With the iPad 2, which quietly was switched last spring to a smaller, less power-hungry version of the dual-core A5 SoC manufactured using Samsung’s new 32-nanometer high-k metal gate, gate first, LP CMOS process technology, which allowed the A5′s physical size to be reduced by a very substantial 41 percent. On machines with standard resolution displays like the iPad 2 (and presumably the iPad mini) the A5 gives away little, if anything in performance to the New iPad’s older technology 45-nanometer A5X SoC, which has a quad-core graphics engine, but otherwise is similar to the full-sized A5 processor used in the first variant of the iPad 2, and thus would be poorly-suited for duty in the iPhone due to it’s relative bulk, power consumption, and the fact that the iPhone’s display doesn’t need the quad-core graphics support, even if it gets up sized to 4 inches, which seems probable.
Consequently, my provisional guess has been, and remains, based on what we think we know, is that the new iPhone will get the same SoC as the iPads 2 and mini — the downsized A5. That said, I wouldn’t categorically rule out Apple surprising us with an A6-powered new iPhone, although the logistics and lack of scuttlebutt leaked from the upstream supply chain do make it seem improbable.
For one thing, Apple is pretty much stuck in the near-term with depending on its major competitor and litigation sparring partner Samsung as manufacturer for A-series SoCs, with iPhone 5 silicon expected to be sourced from Samsung’s Austin, Texas facility. Apple has been negotiating with the world’s largest custom chip maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), for some time now, presumably in the interest of to diversifying its mobile processor supply chain somewhat, and reportedly signing a foundry agreement last September to use TSMC’s 28nm and 20nm processes to build future A-series SoCs.
However Appleinsider reported yesterday that that even though Apple is rumored to have offered upwards of $1 billion for a committment to dedicated A-Series SoC production from TSMC, the chipmaker turned them down, preferring to remain flexible in terms of clientele. An added complication is that TSMC’s 28nm and 20nm manufacturing technologies are reportedly considered a key part of the solution to the problem making quad-core SoCs work within the cramped confines of the iPhone’s enclosure, and Samsung doesn’t have 28nm fabrication capability yet.
Whatever silicon is actually inside the new iPhone will have at this stage been finalized months ago, so I’m taking the alleged leaked photo from the iPhone factory making the rounds and sparking rumor buzz, purportedly showing a SoC designated “A6″, with a big grain of salt.
However, other than a quad-core A6, another plausible possibility is that, since Apple controls the branding nomenclature for its A-series, in-house designed SoCs, it could have just renamed a slightly upgraded A5 dual-core chip “A6” for the new iPhone, and instead introduce a quad-core SoC as the A7 in the fourth-generation full-size iPad next spring.
Source : iphone5newsblog[dot]com
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