Quad-core in Apple products

Posted by Kayla Phantom On Friday, January 6th 2012 in Technology

9to5Mac announced it had evidence that Apple will start equipping its future iPhones and iPads with quad-core processors. The A5 chip that has been used so far in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S is dual-core.

"While not quite confirming that a quad-core processor will power Apple's third-generation iPad, we have obtained evidence that suggests Apple is currently working on quad-core iOS devices," 9to5Mac said on Friday.

Apparently the reference comes in the latest iOS 5.1 beta "processing-core management software," according to the Apple-centric site.

Industry sources that are knowledgeable about Apple's chip strategy gave several statements to CNET earlier today. The confirmed that Apple was going to use quad-cores starting with their next A6 chips. They also added that Samsung was going to make its chips either in South Korea or at its own facility from Austin, Texas. Apparently Samsung is also increasing boosting wafer starts trying to support the supply of the A6 to Apple.

If the rumours are true, it means Apple will not be the only one to start using quad-core processors with ARM-based design in a tablet. Nvidia was first there with its Tegra 3 chip that can be found is several products such as they already well received Asus Transformer Prime.

However, Apple will surely have a special ingredient for its quad-core A6 chips in order to make its devices faster and power efficient at the same time.

The iPad 3 is currently expected to feature a QXGA, 2048x1536 "retina" display. It remains to be seen what extra features the tablet will bring.