Hardly a massive surprise considering the smarts of UK silicon design company ARM power over 95 percent of mobile phones, including the iPhone, but an industry source has confirmed to PocketGamer.biz that Apple will be using an ARM-designed chipset for its forthcoming tablet.
The exact chipset wasn't confirmed but we'd expect it to be ARM's multi processor Cortex-A9, running at 1GHz.
This makes complete sense in terms of ensuring games and applications are as compatible as possible between the various iPhones and the iSlate.
The original iPhone used an ARM 1176JZ architecture running at 412 MHz, while the iPhone 3GS upgraded to the ARM Cortex-A8 running at 600 MHz.
Competition for GPU
Both devices used Imagination Technologies' PowerVR GPU range to provide 3D graphics acceleration: the iPhone has the PowerVR MBX Lite 3D, while the 3GS the more powerful PowerVR SGX.
Again, we'd expect the iSlate to use a component from the PowerVR SGX Series5 range (probably the SGX540), despite ARM, no doubt, pushing the virtues of its rival Mali 200 and 400 range. Not only does Apple have 10 percent stake in Imagination Technologies, but using its design would ease compatibility issues for developers.
The only potential for an upset would be if Apple decided to go with Nvidia's Tegra 2 architecture, which made plenty of headlines at CES 2010.
It's also based on the Cortex-A9 and, linked with Nvidia's own GPU and media silicon, would certainly result in a very powerful piece of hardware, although compromising the power consumption.
Rival designs based on the Cortex-A9, include Qualcomm's Snapdragon (unlikely perhaps as it was used in Google's Nexus One, as well as the Motorola Droid and Nokia's N900), and Texas Instruments' OMAP 4.
News
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
Top Stories
News
3 hours, 46 minutes ago
Red Games Co's Brian Lovell on their Apple Design Award Win: “Inclusivity was a focus from the beginning"
News
Jun 11th, 2024
App Store developers can start nominating their games for featuring later this year
Feature
2 hours, 30 minutes ago
Mobile Mavens: Are today's everlasting, live ops games holding back new innovation?
Feature
3 hours, 58 minutes ago
The key takeaway from Apple's AI-laden WWDC keynote? It's time to buy a new iPhone
Events
Tribeca Games Festival 2024 | North America | Jun 5th |
Steam Next Fest: June 2024 Edition | Jun 10th | |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
GamesForum Hamburg 2024 | Europe | Jun 11th |
ESI London 2024 | Europe | Jun 13th |
Game Con Canada (GCC) 2024 | North America | Jun 14th |
Indie Dev Play 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
Popular Stories
Interview
Jun 5th, 2024
A galaxy far, far away… Why Star Wars: Hunters took six years to hit the target
as
Feature
Jun 3rd, 2024