iPad tech specs reveal Cortex A8, 256MB Ram, PowerVR SGX 535

Now that the iPad has been out and tested for a few days, developers have a much better idea of what's exactly under that perfectly-formed hood. Turns out the A4 processor is modeled on the Cortex A8, a fact which was not only expected, but gives a little extra credence to the theory that chipmaker Intrinsity (who are behind the A8) was recently purchased by Apple. Elsewhere on the iPad, you can find the same PowerVR SGX 535 GPU and 256MB RAM that can be seen in the iPhone 3GS.

But apparently the whole is better than the parts -- our buddy Craig Hockenberry sat down last weekend and did some serious benchmarking, and found that the iPad is actually many times faster than the iPhone 3GS at all sorts of tasks. As Craig said, this is doubly remarkable when you think about it: not only did they get these kinds of speed improvements in just a matter of years, but they've increased the battery life as well. Apple's purchase of PA Semi (and possibly Intrinsity) and their commitment to make their own chips has paid off in spades already.

In other words, the hardware tells us what we already knew about the iPad: it's a beautiful and amazing device. And since there is so much shared hardware, it'll be interesting to see what kinds of speeds we get out of the next version of the iPhone. Lots of these changes and updates in the hardware seem directly transferable right back there.

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Source: http://www.macrumors.com/2010/04/04/ipad-tech-specs-cortex-a…

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Now that the iPad has been out and tested for a few days, developers have a much better idea of what's exactly under that perfectly-formed...

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chris

The main reason the ipad has so much more battery life, when compared to the iphone and even most laptops, is because it has a lithium-polymer(li-po) battery.(not the same as lithium-ion which the iphone has) They have been using li-po batteries in top of the line remote control cars (i.e. red cat) for awhile now and they really do last twice as long. However the battery packs i've used take a really long time to charge.(12 hrs or more)I've been waiting for the li-po to show up in a smart phone or laptop and was very pleased to hear it is powering the ipad.

April 20 2010 at 12:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

John

I'm sorry this is oh so pitiful a piece of hardware for about the sane price you can get a Kindle and a netbook. Plus even the cheapest slowest netbook has a faster cpu and at least a gig of ram and your choice of o/s. Plus a REAL keypad.

April 07 2010 at 12:26 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to John's comment

FightTheFuture

sounds like you need a computer. not an iPad.

now that it's out you might want to try it before you assume how it performs. the thing is very VERY fast.

April 07 2010 at 12:57 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

tdowling

The value of the CPU and RAM is very relative. A fast runner strapped with a bunch of lead weights isn't going to win too many races.

April 07 2010 at 10:04 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

aqdrinker

>256MB RAM? Strike multi-tasking off your wish lists, kids.

When multitasking operating systems were becoming commonplace on the desktop the typical machine had around 8 MB of RAM.

April 06 2010 at 6:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

3 replies to aqdrinker's comment

deaftly

http://i.imgur.com/JDbjc.png

So basically this image is true

April 06 2010 at 6:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ian

256MB RAM? Strike multi-tasking off your wish lists, kids.

April 06 2010 at 5:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

3 replies to Ian's comment

Jared

I would think that the iPad's two batteries play more of a role with "increasing battery life".

The iPhone 3GS has a 4.5 watt-hour battery, whereas the iPad's batteries provide 24.8 watt-hours: 5.5x more power capacity.

Source:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/04/03/ifixits_ipad_teardown_finds_huge_dual_battery_512mb_of_ram_in_a4.html

April 06 2010 at 5:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

hachu

Uh.... Intrinsity didn't make/design the A8. ARM did.

April 06 2010 at 5:04 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to hachu's comment

Mike

Yeah, that was a stretch TUAW.

In fact Intrinsity helped design the 1Ghz Coretex-A8 made by Samsung. Samsung makes the 1Ghz Apple A4 and that is thought to be the same chip Intrinsity helped develop.

"who may be behind the Apple A4" would have been a more correct statement.

April 06 2010 at 6:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply