New iPhone Prototype Has the A4

So, last month Gizmodo got their hands on a lost prototype of the next generation iPhone that some guy found at a bar.  And the world exploded….. in anticipation of finding out news about the new phone.  There was a whole lot of hubbub over the device, and news was coming so fast and fierce that I thought it would be best to leave that to Gizmodo, Engadget and other more professional tech blogs with direct access.  Regardless, I think it’s time to chime in on the possibilities of the device given new information.  So, what to we know about the next iPhone?  Not much.  When Gizmodo first got their hands on the device, it was loaded with a prototype version of iPhone OS 4, but it was quickly remote wiped by Apple.  Besides from that not a lot was known for a while.  The screen may be a higher resolution (as high as 960 x 640, which is 4X the current HVGA screen), the camera looks to be improved, and the battery has a little more capacity.  The only definite goodies that could be gleaned from the prototype was the inclusion of a front camera, a flash on the back camera, the use of Micro-SIM cards, and a noise cancellation mic up top.  This was all in addition to a very sexy new form factor that uses more aluminum and has what looks like a ceramic back to improve radio reception.  I really hope that structural integrity improves since the current iPhone is a little flimsy (I dropped mine on some pavement the other day from about 3 feet, it’s fine but the cosmetic damage is disappointing).

However, the picture has become more clear today as another iPhone prototype has been found by some people in Vietnam and was swiftly sent over to iFixit.  iFixit is an internet site that is meant to show people how to fix many electronics on their own.  They also take the liberty of stripping down new tech to see how they tick.  It was iFixit who thoroughly scanned through the iPad and eventually sent the A4 chip for XRay to see just what was inside it.  Well they’ve done the same with the iPhone prototype and low and behold, it’s rocking the exact same A4 as the iPad.  To revisit, the A4 is Apple’s custom SoC that combines memory, I/O, and the core ARM Cortex-A8 processor, which runs at 1Ghz due to specialized logic from Intrinsity – a design firm that specializes in modifying existing ARM processors and was recently bought by Apple.  The A4 also has 256MB of RAM running on a 64-bit data bus sandwiched on top of the processor core in a package-on-package design to reduce its footprint.  Overall, it’s a nice chip that has powered the heart of the iPad for some impressive speed and performance while offering excellent power management.  It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that the A4 is coming to an iPhone since it’s virtually the same as the current chipset in the iPhone 3GS.  The only difference is its reduced footprint, better power management, faster clockspeed, and better memory bus.  Besides from that, the iPhone and iPad are identical in their processors, even the graphics chip are the same.

So while the inclusion of the A4 in the next iPhone (we’ll call it the iPhone HD) is a nice performance boost over the 3GS, I am a little worried about the iPad.  Mostly because…. well…. what’s the difference now between the iPad and the iPhone?  They have the same hardware (the iPhone HD may even get twice the RAM according to new rumors), very similar screen resolutions (960×640 vs. 1024×768 for iPhone and iPad, respectively), and will run the same software.  And with the iPhone’s inclusion of cameras, standard 3G radio and GPS it makes the iPad seem sort of…. redundant.  In my hands on review of the iPad I stressed that we should not think of it as a giant iPod Touch but rather the other way around, but with the iPhone and eventually the iPod Touch getting these new specs, it becomes harder to make that argument.  The increasing similarity and feature parity between Apple’s $200 (subsidized price) phone and their $500 (base price with no 3G) multimedia tablet makes the choice between them much harder, or maybe far easier.  To be honest, the iPhone HD seems like the obvious choice, especially as iPhone OS 4 is bringing several of the enhancements we’ve already seen on the iPad to the iPhone.  Personally, I believe that this new problem only further proves that Apple undershot on their hardware for the iPad.  They were designing the A4 for a tablet while it only compares to the hardware in state-of-the-art mobile phones.  The A4 will work splendidly in the iPhone, but Apple must re-double their efforts for the next iPad and significantly update the hardware to something more substantial.  I’ve thrown the Cortex-A9 name around before in previous articles, so I’ll only say that Apple should integrate this new chip, with its added dual-processor support, out-of-order execution, and faster clockspeed, into the next iPad and create some significant space between these two devices.  Otherwise, I will never see a point in getting the iPad, and neither will anyone else with even half as much technical education as myself.

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A4 Ain’t Advanced

In another one of my follow up posts to the iPad, I want to talk a little bit more about the hardware in the device.  As some may remember, Jobs made a point of explaining that the iPad doesn’t just use off-the-shelf ARM hardware like many other platforms, but runs their “custom silicon” developed in house.  Now, from the get go, most figured this was going to be hyperbole.  “Custom silicon” probably just meant they selected all the controllers, processing, audio, and graphics cores themselves and then sent the parts to Samsung for fabrication (Samsung has made most of Apple’s mobile chips in the iPod and iPhone).  But ever since Apple acquired P.A. Semi, a custom chip designer, there was the possibility they had done some significant power optimizations or what have you, it was unknown because Apple hadn’t released any white paper on the chip.  What was known was that it was definitely an ARM derivative running at 1Ghz.  It seemed probable that it was the ARM Cortex-A9, the latest from the company, possibly even a dual core solution.  Initially it was rumored that the GPU was another ARM solution: their Mali graphics core.  However, recent information has proven that it uses a far more powerful PowerVR SGX GPU like in the iPhone.  RAM was unknown but I’d figure around 512MB if the iPhone has 256MB.

However, if we are to believe this article from Ars Technica, these estimations are off.  Pathetically so.  A4 isn’t that special, A4 is actually quite mundane.  Any special design is in what it doesn’t have, not what it does.  According to the article which I am inclined to believe due to the professional reputation of Ars Technica, A4 is comprised of a single core Cortex-A8 (A8 lacks out-of-order, a crucial performance feature) at 1Ghz.  This is the same core in the iPhone, just 400Mhz faster.  The graphics core is indeed still a PowerVR SGX, though I’m willing to bet it is no better than what is in the iPhone.  Any optimizations in the chip is really in what it lacks.  Apple’s team has taken out large amounts of I/O processing since the iPad has very few inputs or outputs.  It lacks logic for a camera, more than one USB port, and other bits not needed.  So yes, the chip is probably more power efficient than other A8-based SoCs on the market, but with the power demands of the iPad’s screen, it probably doesn’t help much.  Such tight optimization really shows benefits in the phone sector.

So, what does this really all mean?  In general, it just makes the iPad look far less impressive than it did (I know, seems hard to imagine).  But you’ll recall my initial post on the iPad where I was very excited by the prospects of the A4 chip.  Now, it just seems like another knock against the device.  The fact that this chip seems so rudimentary brings to question how on earth Apple could have spent a reported $1 Billion on its development.  Placing things in perspective, Apple choosing an A8 over an A9 makes it lose serious points against competitors.  A8, in terms of performance, can be about equal with Atom clock-for-clock.  But Atom has a higher clockspeed on many models, though at the expense of battery life.  Other devices are planning to use Nvidia’s Tegra 2 which comes with a dual-core Cortex-A9 solution.  The picture being painted here is that after the woes over Apple’s software choices, now we have trepidation over its hardware capabilities.  That said, the weaker hardware could more appropriately explain Apple’s choice for not including multitasking in the iPad’s OS.  But that is just another example of Apple’s tremendous oversight on their design.

So the question remains, what is PA Semi being used for?  Well, probably just this: making custom tailored SoCs for Apple instead of having to look through other vendors for their needs.  A4’s lack of hardware is not any knock against the Apple Chip Design team explicitly, but rather showing how much optimization has been made.  The fact that A4 is weaker than once thought shows Apple did not have enough foresight when developing the chip (it was apparently manufactured back in September of last year).  But for the future, if and when Apple gets wise and pairs their SoCs to more powerful hardware, we can expect for the same level of power optimization and hardware tailoring to be done.  As well, since A4 really is entirely like the iPhone’s chip, a future with the iPhone using the A4 seems far more likely.  And that, at least, is something to be interested in.

Now, in the end it’s really all about the software right?  That’s the point of these devices, that hardware alone doesn’t have to mandate who wins.  But given the fact that the iPad is more and more looking like absolutely nothing more than a giant iPhone in now every single respect, there’s so little to be excited about.  Again, here’s hoping for a major rethinking under the iPad v2.  And maybe for an end to these articles too?