A supposed shot of an iPad 3 logic board posted on the forum of Chinese website WeiPhone, however, has thrown all previous suggestions into the air.
Rather than depicting a device equipped with an A6 chip the logical successor to the iPad and iPhone 4's A4 chip, and the A5 that's currently powering the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S the photo features an unknown entity, dubbed the A5X.
All in the numbers
According to MacRumors, the A5X name tallies with the progression of processor part numbers cited by BGR earlier in February.
With A4 known internally as S5L8930X and A5 dubbed S5L8940X, the mystery S5L8945X revealed by the site would appear to match up with the chip's commercial name A5X.
Just what kind of upgrade it will offer over A5 remains to be seen, though a lot can be drawn from the name itself Apple's decision to plump for A5X over A6 suggests only a partial upgrade is on the cards, with a more substantial leap saved for a later device.
Outside of A5X, the photo also highlights a pair of 16GB flash memory chips from Hynix, as well as a rectangular Apple-branded chip that's believed might be linked to power management.
Other features believed to be on board are a 2,048 x 1,536 resolution screen and an 8MP rear camera.
[source: MacRumors]
