They doubled the number of LEDs from 36 to 72.
Next-Gen iPhone & iPhone Nano Speculation
- Thread starter Arun
- Start date
They doubled the number of LEDs from 36 to 72.
iPhone 5 (or whatever they will call it) expected to be delayed to October by the delay Qualcomm reported in their earnings report about ramping up the MDM9615 and the 28nm process.
Then there are counter rumors that Apple would launch earlier so that they could reserve the fall to intro an 8-inch iPad.
Then there are counter rumors that Apple would launch earlier so that they could reserve the fall to intro an 8-inch iPad.
anexanhume
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The iPhone was never not going to launch before October anyway. Every iPhone has launched with a new version of iOS. The next version hasn't even been unveiled, much less gone through the 4 to 9 betas past iOS versions went through before hitting gold master.
They won't have to if they use Sharp's IGZO technology. Thinner panels means less LEDs for given amount of luminance. There's also this: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/20...r-in-cell-technology-for-multi-touch-display/
Both are applicable for next iPad and next iPhone.
I know many were speculating that the "new" ipad might have a PowerVr series 6 ("rogue") graphics, but IMG had said in August 2011, that 2013 was the timeframe for it. In an interview published online a few days ago, IMG have re-interated their 2013 date for rogue.
GBR: What is your guideline for mass-market shipments?
Tony King-Smith: 2013 for mobile products in the market.
(TKS is VP of Marketing, IMG)
So I hope that stops the "rogue in iphone5" speculation before it seriously begins.
Interview has some interesting snippets in it. He reconfirms that Series 6 scales from 200Gflops to 1 Tflop. (although I've heard that the platform theoritically can scale much higher than that, but we likely wont see that until near the end of rogues lifespan). In relation to a question regarding the acceleration of hardware development in the mobile space, with reference to Intel going at 2x moore's law, TKS replies that Series 6 is much more computationally focused, and that it "ties in with other trends that you mentioned"
There's also a 1 sentence mention of next-gen console designs.
http://gamingbusinessreview.com/mob...imagination-teraflops-for-smartphones-in-2013
GBR: What is your guideline for mass-market shipments?
Tony King-Smith: 2013 for mobile products in the market.
(TKS is VP of Marketing, IMG)
So I hope that stops the "rogue in iphone5" speculation before it seriously begins.
Interview has some interesting snippets in it. He reconfirms that Series 6 scales from 200Gflops to 1 Tflop. (although I've heard that the platform theoritically can scale much higher than that, but we likely wont see that until near the end of rogues lifespan). In relation to a question regarding the acceleration of hardware development in the mobile space, with reference to Intel going at 2x moore's law, TKS replies that Series 6 is much more computationally focused, and that it "ties in with other trends that you mentioned"
There's also a 1 sentence mention of next-gen console designs.
http://gamingbusinessreview.com/mob...imagination-teraflops-for-smartphones-in-2013
Unless I'm reading that next generation console related sentence wrong it could mean that they might be expecting next generation consoles to carve a new "trend" (I'm thinking of SoCs for console hw), which might open a few more future opportunities for IMG.
I have a strong suspicion that Microsoft will include an ARM SoC in the next Xbox so that it can run a version of Windows 8 Embedded and get access to all of the Windows 8 apps and games. Write once, run anywhere, from phone to tablet to Xbox to laptop to desktop (of course, with appropriate UIs).
anexanhume
Veteran
If apple were designing it into the next iPhone, would he be contractually allowed to say so, even if he didn't mention the licensee? So far, the only actually announced design win we know is the NovaThor A9600 from ST.
While Apple demands a shroud of secrecy around it's partners, a company is generally not allowed to lie to its investors/shareholders. They can either state vague facts or nothing at all, but they cannot state outright falsehoods.
anexanhume
Veteran
Apple owns around 10% of them, for reference. Not that it changes anything. But their success is Apple's too.
Common industry practice is that for a semi IP supplier to confirm that a customer is using our products, they have to get permission from the customer.
Customers' preference for disclusure of this nature varies widely.
Well there had been several whispers in the past that Microsoft evaluated (amongst other solutions as always) also an ARM based SoC; unfortunately no one apart from true insiders knows what they've really gone for in the end. So far happy go merry rumor mongerers point repeatedly in IBM's direction for the CPU and frankly I'm not so sure any console developer would be all that happy having to deal with any API overhead suddenly for consoles.
In any case even for the above theory and unless I'm having another blond moment I don't see any direct benefits for IMG if they haven't landed a GPU IP deal for any of the upcoming consoles (most likely and I mean Microsoft and SONY and not any indirect possible Apple future plans).
Apart from an initial press release from IMG mentioning a multi year / multi license deal with an unnamed partner (which was for Apple) I don't think IMG ever officially announced anything else regarding Apple. Apple's demand for absolute secrecy for such matters isn't something new.
That aside why would Apple first introduce a next generation CPU and a next generation GPU in an iPhone first and not in an iPad? Obviously nothing is set in stone, but from a manufacturing and cost POV it makes more sense to me to start with a tablet SoC design.
By the way if you mean by design win that ST Ericsson announced an actual SoC codename and some hw details then yes; in any other case from the 8 so far Rogue licensees IMG announced besides ST Ericsson, Renesas, TI and Mediatek. For the remaining 4 one of them is of course most likely Apple albeit they'll probably never announced it officially.
If they say 2013, they I'm pretty damn sure its 2013.
...and one is most likely Intel, another licensee of whom no formal licensing statement has been made in over 5 years, even though they have used 535,540,545, and coming up 544 & 544MP2, and numerous VXE and VXD, many of which were not even on the roadmap when the last announcement was made.
It is telling that it has taken this length of time for intel to get into a position where they may actually start providing some useful royalty revenue for IMG via medfield/clovertrail etc.
I havn't really heard of many oaktrail designs, and as for cedartrail, that seems to be mostly on the missing list too.
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anexanhume
Veteran
I agree, but A5X is absolutely untenable as a SoC for a smartphone platform. So, either they're putting that die shrunk A5 into the next iPhone, or they're brewing something new. I can see them putting the die shrunk A5 in there to save power for a new LTE radio, but each successive iPhone has also got a new processor since the 3GS. Plus, we already know that the next Ax (S5L8950X) chip has been showing up in apple code dumps even before we knew what the A5X was (S5L8945X). As far as I know, we've never seen two successive, unannounced chip codenames at the same time before this.
IMHO most likely a 32nm some sort of shrink of A5X but could of course be completely wrong. If the next iPhone should carry a A15/Rogue hw combination I can only imagine the SoC being 28nm. However it's still unlikely since I can't imagine the next iPhone to appear in 2013 and when IMG claims that we'll see Rogue first in devices in 2013 I don't think they're miscalculating anything or hiding anything on purpose.
The only other bet one could take is whether Apple will be first or ST Ericsson. I'm still placing my bets on Apple/iPad-next, but we'll of course see.
I'm not sure if I previously said, but I think for marketing purposes, Apple need to upgrade their CPU. I imagine the 4-core dump that was revealed earlier this year is for the phone. given that it'll be on 32nm @ least, then there is no reason for them to stick with 4 core GPU, so I would see it paired with dual core 543@4-500Mhz.
"twice the number of CPUs" and "twice the graphics power" of the previous phone would be good for marketing. I also expect something novel, perhaps a good implementation of gesture control or something along the lines of facial recognition being used for more than just unlocking ?
I don't really think the iPhone would benefit right now by going to a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9. Seems like a waste really. I'm still using the iPhone 4 based on a single Cortex-A8 and performance is more than adequate for a phone that only ever does one task at a time (front-end) for the user.
All the animations are run by the GPU, so they could be going for a 32 nm A5X.
If anything it will depend on which direction iOS 6 takes.
All the animations are run by the GPU, so they could be going for a 32 nm A5X.
If anything it will depend on which direction iOS 6 takes.
Marketing won't let them launch with dual A9 in Oct, when competitors high-end will be running quad-core A9 or dual-A15.
They really don't need much more graphics power than the current iphone4S. But again, marketing will require major headline bullet points, and unless the packaging is particularly innovative, it'll have to be done on specs/functionality. For a 32nm shrink, they can significantly reduce the die size by using MP2@500Mhz which will give them over twice the performance of iphone4S in less than half the area on 32nm. which should keep them ahead of virtually everything else. To go with MP4 would make no sense to me.
Be interesting to see what Samsung pairs with its Dual A15 and also how much bigger the DX11 compliant Mali T604/658 is compared with Mali400 that has no DX compliance.