A5 Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Latest Apple TVs have smaller A5 chip

by Michael Grothaus (Mar 11th, 2013)

When Apple tweaked its third-generation Apple TV earlier this year, rumors suggested it might use Apple's A5X chip instead of the A5 chip. However it's now been confirmed that the tweaked Apple TV uses an A5 chip, although it's slightly smaller than the A5 chip found in the previous ...

Apple's architect of iPhone, iPad CPU leaves for AMD

by Steven Sande (Aug 1st, 2012)

When you're the best, people want you. CPU manufacturer AMD apparently wanted the best, and they've lured Apple's head chip designer Jim Keller away from the company. Keller became an Apple employee in 2008 when Apple acquired startup chipmaker PA Semi. Keller has some former history with AMD, ...

Apple TV (2012) uses same chip as iPad 2 but only uses one core

by Kelly Hodgkins (Apr 12th, 2012)

The latest Apple TV was torn down recently, but it still has a surprise or two up its sleeve. According to a report in Chipworks, the 2012 unit has a dual-core A5 chip that's only using one of its two cores. They discovered it's actually the same 32nm SoC found in newer iPad 2 units. You can ...

Apple's A5X processor is big and beautiful

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 20th, 2012)

Chipworks posted some polysilicon die photos that compare Apple's A4, A5 and A5X processor. What's most striking to the casual observer is the relative size of each die. As Chipworks notes, the A5X is "big and beautiful" when compared to the A4 and even its close predecessor the A5. You can ...

I0n1c hints at iOS 5.1 jailbreak for the iPad 2

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 15th, 2012)

I0n1c posted up a few images to his Twitter account that supposedly show a jailbroken iPad 2 running iOS 5.1. This is only a proof concept that suggests the individuals working on the A5 jailbreak for iOS 5.1 are making progress. This would be good news for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S owners, who ...

iOS 5.1 gets a tethered jailbreak for non-A5 iPads, iPhones and iPods

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 8th, 2012)

The iPhone Dev Team has updated redsn0w to support a tethered 5.1 jailbreak for non-A5 devices. This means it'll only work with the original iPad and the iPhone 4 and older devices. The tethered jailbreak also apparently breaks iBooks, a bug which will be fixed in a future version of redsn0w. You ...

Siri may be iPhone 4S-only because of noise reduction tech

by Chris Rawson (Feb 6th, 2012)

Siri has been in widespread use for four months, but so far Apple's "personal assistant" is still only available on one device, the iPhone 4S. We speculated that there weren't any technical reasons Siri couldn't work on some of Apple's other devices, and the jailbreak community later proved us ...

Apple's A5 processor now manufactured in Texas

by Chris Rawson (Dec 16th, 2011)

"Designed by Apple in California" -- you'll find that on virtually every Apple product. While it's well-known that the brains of Apple's outfit are indeed housed in California, it's almost as well-known that Apple's products are almost wholly manufactured overseas. Indeed, Apple has been a target ...

Rumor: New Apple TV on the way, suggests TechCrunch

by Steven Sande (Nov 15th, 2011)

Our sister blog TechCrunch just posted a rumor suggesting that the current Apple TV might be replaced with a newer model in the very near future. As Matt Burns at TechCrunch reports, Amazon and Best Buy are now selling the second-generation Apple TV for $89, one full Hamilton less than the ...

Apple's A4 and A5 processors targeted in a new lawsuit filed by Via

by Kelly Hodgkins (Sep 23rd, 2011)

According to a Bloomberg report, well-known motherboard and chipset manufacturer Via has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. Filed in Delaware Federal court, the complaint accuses Apple of infringing three US patents that cover microprocessor technology used in smartphones and ...

Report: Apple A6 production has begun

by Kelly Hodgkins (Aug 12th, 2011)

A report from the Taiwan Economic News claims Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has started trial production of Apple's next generation A6 processor. The A6 is an ARM-based processor that includes a 28-nanometer process and 3D stacking technologies. It's expected to land in Apple's ...

A6 processors being built now at TSMC

by Chris Rawson (Jul 15th, 2011)

A few weeks ago, we learned that Apple would likely abandon Samsung and turn to Taiwanese company TSMC for production of the A6 processor expected to power 2012's iDevices. According to Reuters, Apple has indeed begun "trial manufacturing" of the A6 processor at TSMC. If the company is able to ...

Apple reportedly leaves Samsung for A6 production

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jun 27th, 2011)

Apple may drop Samsung and switch to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for the production of its next generation A6 chipset. The Cupertino Company is reportedly working with TSMC to move to a 28 nm ARM SoC in 2012. Rumors of this TSMC partnership surfaced earlier this year ...

Rumor: Apple testing MacBook Air with A5 processor

by Chris Rawson (May 27th, 2011)

Japanese blog Mac Otakara claims sources have told them Apple is testing a MacBook Air with an A5 processor, the same CPU powering the iPad 2. While the machine performed "better than expected" according to their source, Mac Otakara says it's unclear whether this test machine was running Mac OS ...

Intel hints at option of custom chip foundry for big customers

by Michael Grothaus (May 26th, 2011)

Reuters is reporting that Intel "wouldn't blink" if given the chance to make custom chips for Apple's devices, like the iPhone and iPad. At an investor event in London on Thursday, Chief Financial Officer Stacy Smith told journalists that "there are certain customers that would be interesting ...