Simply bold
Bold is the only word that can be used to describe Apple's A5. It was bold to design such a large device. Certainly the CPU+GPU combination is significantly larger than the comparable portion of the A4. However, this is only the beginning of the story. Going beyond these basic elements leaves an additional 34 mm2 or 64 percent of the whole A4 die. Yes, there are very likely additional IP cores there, but there might also be some clever custom design that leverages Apple's integrated approach.
The much larger A5 incited some back and forth amongst analysts on Wall Street. Discussions of die cost miss the point. This is a very determined step in the emerging A-series SoCs. Apple is well aware of the costs of such a large SoC, but decided the overall system performance gains justify the increase in silicon. Is it also possible that the design has lowered other silicon, system or power consumption burdens? The point is that we need to consider the entire system.
Such a large SoC must be considered a strategic business decision to retain or capture more market share for the consumer products that depend on it. Apple's control of hardware design and OS creates some interesting possibilities.
While a unique lash-up of IP cores might provide some differentiation compared to off-the-shelf solutions, Apple likely plans to venture further down the road of custom circuit design. Going beyond the need to remain generic and flexible to accommodate the broadest possible OS market might produce revolutionary hardware-software platforms.
via
The "The point is that we need to consider the entire system." statement sums up pretty good what we see is missing in current gadgets / devices. Looking for cheap components would hurt an end-product eventually.
Or is this a better and cleverer design?
cheers ...
Bold is the only word that can be used to describe Apple's A5. It was bold to design such a large device. Certainly the CPU+GPU combination is significantly larger than the comparable portion of the A4. However, this is only the beginning of the story. Going beyond these basic elements leaves an additional 34 mm2 or 64 percent of the whole A4 die. Yes, there are very likely additional IP cores there, but there might also be some clever custom design that leverages Apple's integrated approach.
The much larger A5 incited some back and forth amongst analysts on Wall Street. Discussions of die cost miss the point. This is a very determined step in the emerging A-series SoCs. Apple is well aware of the costs of such a large SoC, but decided the overall system performance gains justify the increase in silicon. Is it also possible that the design has lowered other silicon, system or power consumption burdens? The point is that we need to consider the entire system.
Such a large SoC must be considered a strategic business decision to retain or capture more market share for the consumer products that depend on it. Apple's control of hardware design and OS creates some interesting possibilities.
While a unique lash-up of IP cores might provide some differentiation compared to off-the-shelf solutions, Apple likely plans to venture further down the road of custom circuit design. Going beyond the need to remain generic and flexible to accommodate the broadest possible OS market might produce revolutionary hardware-software platforms.
via
The "The point is that we need to consider the entire system." statement sums up pretty good what we see is missing in current gadgets / devices. Looking for cheap components would hurt an end-product eventually.
Or is this a better and cleverer design?
cheers ...
