a6

Will Apple's silicon be good enough for a Mac?

Apple is starting to release some scary-good silicon. But can it muscle out Intel?

Last decade, the question was, will Apple go Intel? After years of speculation, that finally happened in 2006, when Apple dropped the PowerPC for its Mac line.

So are we now on a similar trajectory, as a Bloomberg story speculates, with Apple eventually evicting Intel from its Macs and using its own internally developed processors?

A quick look at the latest Apple silicon shows the company is on the right track. The A6X is a serious piece of silicon that makes the newest gen 4 iPad … Read more

Analysts: iPad 4's graphics upgrade packs a punch

At its silicon core, the fourth-generation iPad is hardly an incremental upgrade, according to chip analysts.

The new iPad's A6X chip packs a brand-new graphics engine that boasts a serious step up in horsepower from the third-generation iPad's A5X.

"Nothing's incremental about this. The A6X is one massive processing machine," Jim Morrison, a product manager at Chipworks, which does reverse engineering and patent-infringement analysis of semiconductors and electronic systems, told CNET.

Chipworks posted an analysis of the A6X's circuit layout today.

Apple's newest chip is a full 30 percent larger than the A6 … Read more

Why did Apple launch the iPad 4 now?

Apple's release of another new iPad this year has many scratching their heads. But Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty sees method behind the madness.

In an investors note out yesterday, Huberty ticked off three reasons why the company unveiled the iPad 4 so soon after its predecessor, which arrived earlier this year.

First, the 3rd-generation iPad, which the analyst calls a "stale product," could have seen its sales cannibalized by the cheaper iPad Mini.

Second, sales for the 3rd-gen iPad were not as high as expected, which Huberty blamed on limited improvements over the iPad 2. Adding … Read more

That was fast: The iPad gets a new chip, the A6X

Apple was quick to obsolete the "new" chip in the third-generation Retina iPad -- not to mention the iPad itself. So the question is, why so fast?

But before we answer that question, let's look at some of the improvements. Apple says the A6X "delivers up to twice the CPU [central processing unit] and graphics performance of the A5X chip" -- the A5X being the processor Apple just announced back in March when it rolled out the first Retina iPad.

A lot of that improvement comes from the goodness of Apple's new A6 chip … Read more

Samsung official cites serious chip rift with Apple -- report

Samsung's multibillion dollar component supplier partnership with Apple is beginning to unravel, according to a South Korea-based report, which quotes a Samsung official.

Though Samsung makes Apple's newest A6 chip used in the iPhone 5, the relationship between the two companies has changed substantially, according to a report in Korea Times.

"Apple...has made it clear it will no longer use its rival's technology, according to a senior Samsung official," the report said.

The report continues, quoting an anonymous Samsung official speaking about the A6 chip. "Apple did all the design and we are … Read more

Apple rethinking Samsung chip partnership, say sources

Apple has begun the process of lessening its dependency on Samsung for chipmaking, an analyst told CNET.

"Apple is working with TSMC at 20 nanometers," said Gus Richard, a chip analyst at Piper Jaffray, referring to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's most advanced 20-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process.

Another chip industry source contacted by CNET confirmed this. "The Apple-Samsung relationship has deteriorated to such a poor point that they're just looking to fill contractual obligations, then make a change," said the source, who corroborated the move to TSMC at 20 nanometers.

An Asia-based news report said … Read more

Samsung chip architect leaves for Apple

Apple taps Samsung for the processors inside its popular portable devices, and it's apparently fond of the company's employees as well.

The Wall Street Journal notes that Jim Mergard, who joined Samsung last June to be its chief system architect, has left to go work at Apple. Before Samsung, Mergard spent 16 years at Advanced Micro Devices, where he was a vice president and chief engineer.

The move is the latest in a series of behind the scenes shuffles among some heavy hitters in the chip market. In early August Advanced Micro Devices hired former Apple chip architect Jim Keller … Read more

iPhone 5 so far: One road warrior's two-week test

Two weeks in, I've got a better feel for the iPhone 5, both good and bad.

After upgrading from the iPhone 4S to the 5 two weeks ago yesterday, I've been on the road -- bouncing between the east and west coasts. That's plenty of opportunity to test the iPhone 5's mettle.

The good, the bad, the meh:

Wi-Fi: This was the first gotcha. After arriving at my destination in Philadelphia, a Wi-Fi network I needed to access didn't take -- despite working fine with a host of other devices, including an iPhone 3GS and … Read more

Here's why the iPhone 5 is the best gaming phone

Back before the iPhone 5 was a known quantity, back before we even knew it was definitely going to have a larger screen, the iPhone was already a great gaming handheld. Millions of people know that. Gamers may hate to admit it, because the iPhone lacks physical buttons. It doesn't matter.

What the iPhone did to mobile gaming has reverberated across the industry, forcing the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita into catch-up mode, battling for second and third place. Free-to-play and the very concept of redownloadable gaming apps -- not to mention the rebirth of indie development -- can all be traced to Apple's App Store and this little handheld device. … Read more

Apple's A6 processor appears faster than previously thought

The silicon powering the new iPhone 5 appears to be more powerful than previously thought.

The A6 processor found in Apple's next-generation smartphone has been clocked at 1.3GHz by a new version of iOS benchmarking software Geekbench, faster than the 1.02 GHz previously reported .

The new version of Geekbench, which landed today at the App Store, "features a dramatically improved processor frequency detection algorithm, which consistently reports the A6's frequency as 1.3GHz," Primate Labs John Poole told Engadget.

Earlier results posted by Geekbench suggested the A6 was roughly twice as fast as any chip … Read more