iPad 3 debug screenshots reveal quad-core A6 processor, two models

[Shawn Knight]

Leaked screenshots from a development and debug tool called iBoot reportedly contain data about Apple’s next-generation iPad. The images were supplied by a source who claims to be in possession of an iPad 3 prototype, according to BGR.

Based on the screen captures we see model numbers J1 and J2 (iPad 3,1 and iPad 3, 2) which corroborate with the same model numbers that DigiTimes reported a few weeks ago. It’s worth pointing out, however, that these aren’t two different devices but rather two models of the same iPad – likely a Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi + GSM / CDMA / LTE to cover all carriers.

Perhaps the most important discovery from the debug screens is confirmation that Apple is using an A6 processor, model number S5L8945X. BGR notes that the Apple A4 model was S5L8930X and the A5 is S5L8940X. The A6 is expected to be a quad-core processor which would make the iPad 3 the fastest iOS device to date. Samsung is the likely manufacturer of the A6 for Apple despite their continued battles in the courtroom.

References to quad-core processing were found in iOS 5.1 early last month as first reported by 9to5Mac. The iPad 3 is expected to ship with a QXGA (2084 x 1536 pixels) display and improved battery life.

The latest speculation indicates that the iPad 2 will receive a price cut to $399 with the introduction of the iPad 3. The lower price would allow Apple to compete with other vendors such as Sony, Motorola and Samsung that offer tablets at a lower price point.

As always, we recommend that you take Apple rumors with a healthy dose of salt. Images like this could easily be faked.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/47281-ipad-3-debug-screenshots-reveal-quad-core-a6-processor-two-models.html

 

[Guest]

wow nice
probably gonna get one

 

[Burty117]

If those screen resolutions are true, I'm gunna pre-order one of those beasts, ever since tablets came out I've been waiting for one with a high res screen and this fits the bill nicely

 

[princeton]

I might just order one to get a high res IPS screen for my PC using MaxiVista, assuming it's still $499 for the entry level model.

 

[Guest]

Yes! Hopefully this will make Samsung lower the price of the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

 

[Guest]

no matter what, Asus Transformer Prime is the best the only Quad Core Tablet !!!!!

 

[St1ckM4n]

Yeah, no matter what, eh Guest.

Even with the buggy docks, buggy/unusable ICS update, and all.

 

[soldier1969]

Thats close to the res I use on my desktop 2560 x 1600 (30 inch monitor) that will be amazing to use on a 10 inch tablet. This is the Ipad I've been waiting for.

 

[princeton]

Guest said:
no matter what, Asus Transformer Prime is the best the only Quad Core Tablet !!!!!

Unfortunately ICS still refuses to run as well as iOS or WP7 on any hardware in existence. Google Android is the equivalent of Windows 7 on a tablet, it's a touch interface but not a touch ui. Your finger basically acts as a glorified mouse cursor, everything lags behind where your fingers are actually moving, and nothing runs smoothly. I jumped ship because I don't tolerate slowdowns on my PC, and I won't tolerate them on my mobile devices either. Even my Galaxy S II couldn't match the old iPhone 4. It was close but still not quite there, and for a dual core with a quad core GPU that's unacceptable. It's even more unacceptable on a Cortex-A9 quad with a 12 core GPU that can't keep the UI as smooth as the single core Cortex-A8 chip in the original iPad.

Yeah, no matter what, eh Guest.

Even with the buggy docks, buggy/unusable ICS update, and all.

^^^This.

 

[Chazz]

Princeton said:

Guest said:
no matter what, Asus Transformer Prime is the best the only Quad Core Tablet !!!!!

Unfortunately ICS still refuses to run as well as iOS or WP7 on any hardware in existence. Google Android is the equivalent of Windows 7 on a tablet, it's a touch interface but not a touch ui. Your finger basically acts as a glorified mouse cursor, everything lags behind where your fingers are actually moving, and nothing runs smoothly. I jumped ship because I don't tolerate slowdowns on my PC, and I won't tolerate them on my mobile devices either. Even my Galaxy S II couldn't match the old iPhone 4. It was close but still not quite there, and for a dual core with a quad core GPU that's unacceptable. It's even more unacceptable on a Cortex-A9 quad with a 12 core GPU that can't keep the UI as smooth as the single core Cortex-A8 chip in the original iPad.

Yeah, no matter what, eh Guest.

Even with the buggy docks, buggy/unusable ICS update, and all.

^^^This.

So what did you jump ship to?

 

[waterytowers]

regarding bugs and the transformer, name an apple product that has not had issues on release. I agree devices released with bugs are bad form but I think there is a growing tendency by all manufacturers to release buggy hardware and software.

 

[princeton]

waterytowers said:
regarding bugs and the transformer, name an apple product that has not had issues on release. I agree devices released with bugs are bad form but I think there is a growing tendency by all manufacturers to release buggy hardware and software.

Apple has never released an update for iOS that I know of that starts bricking devices and is full of bugs. The iPhone 4S was essentially perfect on launch, and any issues people have are typically directed at the build quality which is a fallacy because the build quality is superb. The materials used in the build are irrelevant to how well it is constructed.

Again, defend Android all you want. The OS apparently need some sort of currently non-existent 8 core cortex-A15 running at 2.5GHz to stop having stutters in the UI, meanwhile WP7 and iOS have done it with Cortex-A8 based single core chips. I hope all that "openness" is worth the shitty user interface, it wasn't for me. Again, why would I tolerate that kind of BS on my tablet or my phone if I don't on my PC? Google doesn't have any incentive to actually fix the issue, because they make a fortune off of OEMs because it's free to use and they get advertisement money. These OEMs don't care about the user experience either, so I can pretty safely say it will never be fixed unless Google scraps Android and starts from scratch.

I went through an HTC Desire, a Galaxy S, a Nexus S and an SGS II. The last two were the best of the bunch, but still not on par with what Apple had done over a year before, and what Microsoft did as well. Even the flagship Galaxy Nexus is a failure when it comes to the UI being smooth, because Google makes horrifying rookie mistakes like not keeping launcher icons cached and trying to load and render webpages at the same time rather than letting the UI take priority over the device when the user interacts. I believe I stated in my earlier post, It's a touch interface but not a touch UI.

So what did you jump ship to?

I brought over a Focus S from the UK over Ebay because I wanted to try one of the newer WP7 devices and in Canada we get everything relating to technology last, assuming we even get it at all. I already had an iPhone 4 from earlier, I can't justify the 4S price when I already own the 4. I do work for a Bell dealer in Kitchener so I get to play with a lot of the phones we get, the worst offenders in terms of UI smoothness are HTC devices and Motorola devices. HTC ones are pretty, but I swear that Sense 3.0 runs at like 20fps all the time. Moto phones don't really have any excuse IMO, motoblur is still ugly.

Do you have a cellphone? If you do, might I ask which cellphone you own?

 

[St1ckM4n]

I can't provide evidence, but I'm pretty sure ICS is the first android version to be properly dual-core+ optimised.

On earlier versions, the 2nd core only started working when 1st was under load. ICS uses both cores equally. This is why ICS is so much snappier than honeycomb on the few devices that have it (I have motorola xoom).

 

[princeton]

I can't provide evidence, but I'm pretty sure ICS is the first android version to be properly dual-core+ optimised.

On earlier versions, the 2nd core only started working when 1st was under load. ICS uses both cores equally. This is why ICS is so much snappier than honeycomb on the few devices that have it (I have motorola xoom).

Oh and that's another thing I was tired of on Android. "This is so much smoother with the stock UI on all of three bloody devices that actually have it." I flashed so many roms when I used Android to try and make my devices smoother, it's remarkable. Never really helped though, the best I tried was CM7 in terms of smoothness, but for some reason that all disappears when you install any apps, I never really understood that. Perhaps it's because it has to render more icons in the app launcher?

God, I've derailed this thread an insane amount. I apologize.

 

[Archean]

@St
I own a HTC Sensation these days, (having gone through Desire/DHD, SGS; and played around with so many droids) and I can't but agree with princeton. Despite it being a dual core phone, it suffers from stuttering every now and then for no real reason, I must admit it happen lot less than the SGS which I previously had, not to mention the mysterious crashes it suffers while sitting idle. On the contrary iPhone 4, and almost every single core WP7 device feels whole lot more smoother and responsive. As I think I said earlier on some other thread, I'd rate iOS as the best OS of the lot, with WP very close second only because it is still not a feature complete OS. I don't buy into the sh** that everything open source/free is good, it is not, if it were no body would be buying expensive software solutions for their businesses or homes.

 

[St1ckM4n]

Well I can't talk for WP7, but iOS and Android are totoally different types of OS altogether. Just multitasking.. iOS pauses apps (I think), whereas android is a mini-pc and runs various stuff in the background. Not keeping an eye on what you install/run can lead to some pretty intense background processing going on.

Also, iPhone is proprietary hardware. It goes hand-in-hand with iOS. Android has so many versions (it's well documented that this disparity between versions was killing android - perhaps why ICS came about) and so many handset manufacturers, that things will NEVER run as smoothly as an iPhone.

That's the price premium you pay. Just like with a mac.

 

[Burty117]

St1ckM4n said:
multitasking.. iOS pauses apps (I think).

Well depends, alot of my games I have continue to run in the background as does TuneInRadio and GPS apps all keep running in the background, but in a sense your right, If i'm using Youtube for example and lock the phone it pauses exactly where you are and picks up instantly when you unlock the phone.

So its dependent on what your doing.

Anyways why would you want everything you've opened running all the time anyway? I would consider that a flaw on a smart phone than something useful.

 

[St1ckM4n]

It normally just uses RAM. But some bad coding on random apps will have CPU idling higher than normal too.

 

[Archean]

I think limiting applications which can idle (or multi-task) at any given time on mobile devices make perfect sense, hence, the superior performance of iOS or even WP in general, whereas all droids suffer overtime as more and more programs stay in background.

 

[Chazz]

Princeton said:
Do you have a cellphone? If you do, might I ask which cellphone you own?

my first smartphone was a LG quantom(wp7). Now I use a HTC titan, despite the low resolution the screen is amazing imo. I won't upgrade until WP get support for greater resolutions. For now, I'm happy with my choice.

 

[princeton]

chazz said:

Princeton said:
Do you have a cellphone? If you do, might I ask which cellphone you own?

my first smartphone was a LG quantom(wp7). Now I use a HTC titan, despite the low resolution the screen is amazing imo. I won't upgrade until WP get support for greater resolutions. For now, I'm happy with my choice.

I really love some of the WP features, especially being able to send out an update to all my social network services at once, definitely loving my Focus S. I keep the iPhone 4 around for the app support(can't survive without my games) and the music/video player.

Archean said:
@St
I own a HTC Sensation these days, (having gone through Desire/DHD, SGS; and played around with so many droids) and I can't but agree with princeton. Despite it being a dual core phone, it suffers from stuttering every now and then for no real reason, I must admit it happen lot less than the SGS which I previously had, not to mention the mysterious crashes it suffers while sitting idle. On the contrary iPhone 4, and almost every single core WP7 device feels whole lot more smoother and responsive. As I think I said earlier on some other thread, I'd rate iOS as the best OS of the lot, with WP very close second only because it is still not a feature complete OS. I don't buy into the sh** that everything open source/free is good, it is not, if it were no body would be buying expensive software solutions for their businesses or homes.

Hahaha, that's a great way to put it!

 

[Guest]

I just got a Galaxy Nexus over the holidays (upgrading from an OG droid) and it is literally the best piece of tech i have ever owned. My droid was painfully slow at the end of its 2 year cycle, but i decided to stick with android because i love the customization and tweaking options it offers over iOS and WP7. Couldn't be happier with my decision. In my experience, ICS is just as smooth and nearly as intuitive as iOS, but much more powerful in terms of what your allowed to do with it. For my money, android is the only way to go

 

[princeton]

Guest said:
I just got a Galaxy Nexus over the holidays (upgrading from an OG droid) and it is literally the best piece of tech i have ever owned. My droid was painfully slow at the end of its 2 year cycle, but i decided to stick with android because i love the customization and tweaking options it offers over iOS and WP7. Couldn't be happier with my decision. In my experience, ICS is just as smooth and nearly as intuitive as iOS, but much more powerful in terms of what your allowed to do with it. For my money, android is the only way to go

It's not just as smooth, not at all. I work at Bell, I was playing with the Galaxy Nexus on the first of December which is likely before you ever touched one, and it's not as smooth as my Focus S or my iPhone 4. It has so many things that just scream incompetence at Google. I mentioned it before, the app drawer will stutter at times because the icons for apps and widgets aren't cached and they need to reload. So the OS tries to render the icons and perform the transition at the same time rather than letting the transition finish and then loading the icons. That's a rookie mistake and Google's software engineers should feel horrible about themselves for ever making it. Even without that, scrolling through lists is still not as smooth as it could be, and the browser is certainly not as smooth as iOS on WP7, although it may be "faster" in terms of loading if the benchmarks are true.

 

[Guest]

Hmm well maybe i got lucky or Google released an update or something because i haven't noticed any issues with choppiness or UI rendering. The only thing that does bug me sometimes is the webpage rendering, which can be a bit glitchy at times. Regardless i wouldn't want to deal with the loss of functionality if i switched to iOS or WP7.

 

[princeton]

Guest said:
Hmm well maybe i got lucky or Google released an update or something because i haven't noticed any issues with choppiness or UI rendering. The only thing that does bug me sometimes is the webpage rendering, which can be a bit glitchy at times. Regardless i wouldn't want to deal with the loss of functionality if i switched to iOS or WP7.

You not noticing=/=it not being there. Trying to argue it isn't there is pointless, because it's there. You never got lucky, you're just choosing to ignore it or you just don't have the eyesight to notice the issues in the animation framerates. I will go to work tommorow, I will scroll to the widgets page or perhaps I will navigate in the browser on the store model of the Gnex after I factory reset it to remove any installed apps that could possibly slow it down, and I will watch in horror as I see an OS that requires non-existent hardware or an entire rewrite to become smooth.

Also the loss of functionality argument only goes so far, you completely ditch having a smooth interface with Android. You also lose stability and compatibility compared to iOS and WP7. If you don't go with a Nexus device or you buy a tablet you're at the mercy of the OEM and possibly the carrier to get you updates. You're also stuck with the OEM bloatware and UI, unless you want to flash a custom ROM.

It honestly seems that it's the only argument Android fans have to defend their choice, that they get extra functionality. Is that all you guys have got? The only other argument I see is that Android phones have the best hardware, but that doesn't mean anything when the weaker devices on other platforms are still faster.