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docdivakar
@RickMerritt: I found the link to a Samsung Galaxy teardown at the portal of EDN ...
docdivakar
@RickMerritt: would it be possible to do a similar teardown on Samsung's galaxy ...
Inside the iPad2 and the Apple A5
Rick Merritt
3/12/2011 2:29 PM EST
Much of Apple's secret sauce for the iPad2 is either in its software or its system-on-chip processor—the A5. We can't do a teardown exposing the code, unfortunately, but we can explore the A5.
“The primary observation is that the A5 is huge, with a processor die size of 12.1 x 10.1 mm," said Robert Widenhofer, a senior technical analyst at UBM TechInsights.
"You'll recall that the A4 was a package-on-package with the processor and its supporting memory stacked one capsule atop another, and it had a processor die size of 7.3mm x 7.3mm," Widenhofer said.
"For the A5, we see a single package containing the processor die and a pair of 256 MByte low power DDR2 SDRAM die--512 MBytes total memory, likely configured to support a 64-bit bus,” he said.
The initial markings and location of the markings on the A5 suggest it may be fabricated by Samsung. However, UBM TechInsights is continuing its analysis of the chip in greater detail. Stay tuned for more detail.
Meanwhile, below is a chart comparing the A5 to past Apple SoCs.
Click on image to enlarge.
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roncruiser
3/12/2011 4:06 PM EST
Good information.
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goafrit
3/13/2011 10:57 AM EDT
Nice reporting and excellent job. Apple is riding a great wave.
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GREAT-Terry
3/13/2011 11:34 AM EDT
Good report. I hope to see if there is any hint on what kind of processor the A5 is actually is. Will it be the similar ARM processor?
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rick.merritt
3/13/2011 11:44 AM EDT
Yes, I too am interested to know what ARM and graphics cores it uses and any other new blocks in the A5. Hopefully the analysts will kinow in a few days
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notnotme
3/14/2011 6:42 AM EDT
it is not ARM. Its PA Semi PowerPC which Apple acquired for $250 odd million.
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rick.merritt
3/14/2011 11:25 AM EDT
@notnotme: Apple did buy PA Semi apparently to gain microprocessor design expertise, but analysts have concluded Apple did NOT use its PowerPC based design. Instead they concluded Apple used a a Samsung Hummingbird core based on an ARM Cortex A8 core. See http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4200451/Apple-s-A4-dissected-discussed--and-tantalizing
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Don Scansen
3/14/2011 2:54 PM EDT
Rick,
Chipworks has posted a floorplan of the A5 showing the main IP blocks.
http://www.chipworks.com/en/technical-competitive-analysis/resources/technology-blog/2011/03/apple-a5-vs-a4-floorplan-comparison/
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Frank Eory
3/14/2011 3:48 PM EDT
Thanks for posting this link. If I'm not mistaken, the upgrade from one Cortex A8 to two A9 cores was pretty much expected, as was the Imagination Technologies GPU.
As the chipworks blog writer said, "quite a lot of horsepower!"
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DestroCom
3/15/2011 6:20 PM EDT
What's interesting though is that no one has identified which ARM cores the A5 is using. Is it A8 or A9? that floorplan doesn't tell us.
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Allan_Editor
3/15/2011 6:32 PM EDT
@DestroCom and @Frank Eory
IOSnoops claims that the A5 is using two A9 cores thru software reverse-engineering. TechInsights has done the same floorplan analysis on the A5 but further research is required before we can definitively say that the cores are indeed ARM Cortex A9. It proves a little more difficult in the flexibility of design that comes from selecting these cores.
We do know it's not the ARM A8 though in dual use. We would be able to see that quickly considering it is the same 45nm process from Samsung that was applied to A5 that was on the A4.
That core was also seen in the Hummingbird:
http://www.ubmtechinsights.com/uploadedFiles/Public_Website/Content_-_Primary/Investigative_Analysis/2011/Five_Top_Trends_in_the_Mobile_Industry_for_2011/Apple%20A4%20vs%20SEC%20S5PC110A01-%20update.pdf
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elctrnx_lyf
3/14/2011 3:03 PM EDT
Infineon not in the ipad is really a bad news for intel considering the huge volumes of the apple products. quallcom is doing great by taking center stage in latest iphone and ipad2.
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tech13
3/14/2011 4:04 PM EDT
Skyworks has many nice wins...
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selinz
3/14/2011 9:40 PM EDT
Overall, it's an iphone with a big display and 3 batteries... Nothing too spectacular beyond that (which is spectacular enough in its own right!)
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ATUL SRIVASTAVA
3/15/2011 2:15 AM EDT
The differentiation in this business (xPad) will come from Software , Display Quality and overall power consumption .SoCs from different vendors all using similar ARM core will be only relevant from power consumption point of view as all of them will have more processing power than what any xPad will need.
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Patk0317
3/21/2011 1:42 AM EDT
Good info. Now how does it compare with the new Android and Palm based tablets arriving in the marketplace?
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docdivakar
3/21/2011 6:01 PM EDT
@RickMerritt: would it be possible to do a similar teardown on Samsung's galaxy tabs?
Also, the package-on-package (PoP) in A4 was functionally mapped into a lateral design in A5 with much more functionality. It would nice to explore if some functions can be moved to a vertical substrate via 3D TSV's in A5 and further shrink the floor space? My hunch is some one at Apple is working along that line of thought...
MP Divakar
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docdivakar
3/22/2011 3:06 PM EDT
@RickMerritt: I found the link to a Samsung Galaxy teardown at the portal of EDN (a sister publication of EE Times):
Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet teardown:
http://www.edn.com/blog/Anablog/40609-Videos_of_the_Samsung_Galaxy_Tab_tablet_teardown.php
Unfortunately it is a collection of videos and leaves a lot to be desired. So it is still worthwhile to get snapshots of the the teardown along with technical descriptions. Thanx.
MP Divakar
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