This is a discussion thread for the "New Apple TV's A5 CPU Size Reduced to 32 nm" story posted on the front page.
Weird. Reducing the size increases battery life, as well as decreases heat (an issue on the new iPad). Maybe the next iPhone will have a similar design. 32nm for better battery life, but still Dual-Core and same/similar graphics. Right now, iOS 5 is silky smooth on the A5 processor, I don't see the need for Quad-Core or Cortex-A15 Dual-Cores until 2013 on iOS.
They're probably just testing Samsung's new 32nm process. Yields may not be high enough for use in the full product line. If there are any problems with the die, the ATV isn't popular enough for it to matter. You may want to add that the $399 iPad 2 also uses the 32nm A5, with both cores enabled. Theoretically this year's iPad 2 should have better battery life than last year's model.
Smaller components take less power to operate and are more power efficient. Intels new processors are built on a 22nm microarchitecture. I would love to see that technology make it into Apples CPUs.
No, they license a design from ARM and tweak it slightly. Samsung, TI, ST-Ericsson etc. does it too mostly when it comes to ARM processors. Qualcomm tend to modify the design more than the rest. About the die shrink. If the yield is high enough it will not only lead to lower power consumption but also cost savings as you can make more processors out of the same wafer. Nothing strange about it.
I don't quiet understand. Is the article on chipworks saying that the most recent iPad 2's (the $400 ones) and the new Apple TV's actually have A5 dual cores chips instead of the A5X chips (which is a dual core processor with quad core graphics) that are in the iPad 3's (or as apple says "the new iPad")? Is there any difference between the A5 and A5X chips other than the A5 should improve battery life and run cooler?
