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Semiguru
Apple made in USA...?????
Aquarious
Maybe Apple did not want to take the risk of the new process and opted to stay ...
IPad 3 called 'unbalanced' as Apple, TSMC rumors fly
Rick Merritt
1/2/2013 2:19 PM EST
SAN JOSE, Calif. – The Apple iPad 3 is an unbalanced design with an underpowered graphics processor for its high-end display, according to an analysis released Wednesday (Jan. 2) by technology watcher David Kanter. Apple’s quick move to the iPad 4 with a graphics chip bolstered in part by Samsung’s new 32-nm process technology showed that Apple recognized the fault, he said.
The analysis emerges as reports circulate again that Apple is preparing to shift at least some of the manufacturing of its A series processors from Samsung to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. TSMC will start trial production this quarter of the A6X processor used in the iPad 4, according to several reports citing Taiwan newspapers.
Rumors have circulated since March 2011 that Apple will switch from Samsung to TSMC for foundry work. Apple and Samsung are locked in legal battles around the world over patent infringement including one resolved last year in a San Jose trial.
As foundries, Samsung and TSMC both could offer Apple the latest 28 nm processes to bolster performance and lower power for the A series chips. One analyst speculated that Apple may have a long term supply contract for foundry services at Samsung, explaining its slow shift away from its smartphone and tablet competitor. Through much of 2012, TSMC had limited availability of its 28-nm process.
Access to the latest process technology is key for Apple, said Kanter, principal of Real World Technologies. “The high cost and power consumption of the A5X was undoubtedly one of the reasons why Apple opted to discontinue the iPad 3 a mere seven months" after it was launched, he said.
Apple moved quickly to adopt the so-called Retina display from Samsung in the iPad 3 released in March. However, the graphics processor in the A5X chip Apple used--made in a 45-nm Samsung process using “conventional SiON gate dielectrics”--could not adequately feed the new 2048×1536 display, Kanter said.
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ChipConnoisseur
1/2/2013 7:35 PM EST
Nice to see that all of these analysts are coming out NOW and admitting iPad 3 was underpowered, when it was something obvious from the beginning, but I didn't see any of them saying anything then. Were they too afraid to ruin Apple's momentum? Why did they just mention it now when Apple already "fixed" the problem? And by fixed, I mean they've barely made it have the same performance as an iPad 2, at its native resolution.
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rick.merritt
1/2/2013 7:52 PM EST
Good point. I think Apple feeds the analysts a fair amount of Kool-Aid so it's hard for them to be soberly critical.
Kanter is not one of the usual Apple hangers on because he has more of a focus on semiconductors, something Apple rarely says anything about in public except to say it has a new chip the name is AXX and it is better than the last chip.
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eewiz
1/2/2013 11:47 PM EST
"The Apple iPad 3 is an unbalanced design with an underpowered graphics processor for its high-end display"
Such a ridiculous statement. These analysts will cook up any silly comments for a few more clicks. Have he done any technical analysis before commenting that the graphics was underpowered? There could be many other reasons for a quick update other than this. And it was the CPU performance than the GPU performance that improved drastically between A5x and A6x.
I have used an iPad 3 for around 6 months before replacing it with a mini. I have extensively used it for 3D gaming and I can confirm, that the 3D graphics performance in games were very smooth.
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rick.merritt
1/3/2013 12:35 AM EST
Did you ever try those games on an iPad 2?
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eewiz
1/3/2013 1:16 AM EST
yup. The game I am talking about, Asphalt, has non retina and retina version. Have played the non retina version(IIRC ver 5 or 6) in iPad 2. It was was very smooth also.
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shyam334
1/3/2013 3:33 AM EST
Are you sure its rendering at native resolution?
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eewiz
1/3/2013 8:26 AM EST
YES OFCOURSE
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tangey
1/3/2013 6:45 AM EST
Interesting. The brand new google nexus 10 tablet running a 32nm Soc with the latest mali graphics processor has barely 20% more performance @ native resolution than the 10 month old 45nm Soc-ed Apple ipad3 @ native resolution, under Glbenchmark 2.5.
Must be unbalanced too....no ?
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eewiz
1/3/2013 8:30 AM EST
Yup. the nexus chip is driving 30% more pixels(2560x1600 vs 2048x1536). Must be under powered I guess.
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Nvidia
1/3/2013 9:32 PM EST
From what I understood in this article,
http://www.realworldtech.com/ipad3-graphics/
In this article he is claiming that Apple got over this by limiting the resolution to 1024x768 even though the app "requests" retina resolution. If that is actually what is happening in ipad3, then his analysis does make sense.
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Nvidia
1/3/2013 9:47 PM EST
The results from anandtech also shows a similar pattern. The chip is underpowered for the resolution and does not deliver comparable "fps" for the retina resolution vs standard 1024*768 resolution...
...http://www.anandtech.com/show/5688/apple-ipad-2012-review/15
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shyam334
1/3/2013 11:06 PM EST
I was also thinking about the possibility of 3d being rendered at an intermediate resolution.
see iphone 5 vs ipad 3
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6425/google-nexus-4-and-nexus-10-review/2
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chipmonk
1/4/2013 10:58 AM EST
The root cause of the iPad3 being weak in graphics was that Samsung built the Apple A6 with their non HKMG 45 nm process. Even with 2 GPUs the die was huge and dissipated a lot of heat which is why Apple had to use a Heat Sink on top of the SoC. Several months after the iPad 3 Samsung brought out their own Galaxy S3 using their 32 nm HKMG process. A few months later Samsung used their new Fab process for Apple's A6 in iPad 4. This episode exposed Apple's vulnerability from depending on just one Supplier with its own ambitions.
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chipmonk
1/4/2013 11:34 AM EST
The iPad 3 came out last Mar'12. The A5X in it had 2 CPUs and 4 GPUs. Samsung non HKMG 45 nm process was used to build it and the die was huge 165 mm sq. Just a few weeks later ( May '12 ) Samsung brought out its own Galaxy using 32 nm HKMG ! The iPad 4 was relaesed Oct '12 with the A6x in it still with 2 CPUs and 4 GPUs but built with 32 nm HKMG ( device shrink factor 2 ) and the die only 124 sq mm ( die shrink factor 1.33 ), so presumably 50 % more transistors, apart from having a more advanced design.
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rick.merritt
1/4/2013 11:35 AM EST
It's ironic how much Apple has depended on its arch rival and imitator Samsung for process technology, LCD technology, NAND flash and etc.
A book could be written about this dysfunctional marriage
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chipchap42
1/4/2013 11:49 AM EST
...so is that your next plan, Rick? :-)
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Daniel Payne
1/4/2013 12:18 PM EST
As an owner of an iPad 3 since it was introduced I can assure you that graphics performance is not underpowered, in fact it plays smoother and with higher frame rates than the Nexus 7 tablet recently released.
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selinz
1/4/2013 12:23 PM EST
we are reading a book! the books of 2013. Companies like Apple and Samsung both like to be in control. Not an ideal for a smooth marriage.
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Aquarious
1/4/2013 1:02 PM EST
Maybe Apple did not want to take the risk of the new process and opted to stay behind, rather then not release the iPad3?
Maybe we're jumping too quickly to conclusions?
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Semiguru
1/4/2013 6:21 PM EST
Apple made in USA...?????
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