With the era of dual core chips for smartphones Apple may be thinking to go one step further and use the first mover advantage strategy.With the current A5 dual core chips on iPhones and iPads Apple might just be thinking to use A6 quad core chips on the next gen iPhone and iPad’s.9to5mac gave some information from the iOS 5.1 which gives references to the new quad-core chip.
According to the naming conventions within Apple’s processing-core management software,Apple’s dual-core A5 chipset is referred to as “/cores/core.1″ within the iOS code, and single-core chips are “/cores/core.0″ .Now a reference to “/cores/core.3″ has been identified. This could be the new quad-core A6 chips which Apple may include in its third-generation iPad and sixth-generation iPhone, both due to launch later this year.
This makes sense also.If you remember the first-generation iPad clocked around 1GHz with the single core A4 processor, and —a year later—Apple increased the iPad’s chip to dual-core-with an A5 processor. So there are chances that Apple might want to take one step futher.Apple is already rumored to be working on a quad-core “A6″ processor, and such processors were said to be ready in 2012.9to5mac went deep into the iOS 5.1 code and gave some titbits for us to relish on.
According to them the references to quad-core iPhone and iPad chips come by way of a hidden panel that describes cores that are supported by iOS device hardware. The updated core management software includes an option of “/cores/core.3,” and this represents a fourth available processing core
When they took suggestions from extremely reliable and knowledgeable people familiar with iOS’s inner workings they got to know that core references begin at “0.” For example: A single core device would be limited to ”/cores/core.0,” and a dual-core device would come in at ”/cores/core.1.” A “core.2″ (which is not referenced in iOS code) would be a triple-core processor according to this labeling method. iOS 5.1 beta 2 now includes core.3, a seemingly quad-core chip from Apple. Below, you can view a comparison between the pre-iOS 5.1 beta iOS core management software and the iOS 5.1 beta version. The dual-core A5 chip, on the bottom, has the “core.1,” and the quad-core chip, on top, supporting iOS 5.1 beta is marked with the “core.3.”
A quad-core processor can help devices power very high-resolution displays (such as the rumored iPad 3 with a Retina Display), and even power very advanced software like a rumored Final Cut Pro for iOS. Overall, a quad-core processor should add extra horsepower to gaming and overall operating system navigation.So let’s wait until then pour in your comments on this.
