
Analysis Of Apple’s A5 - flippyhead
http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/04/13/analysis-of-apples-a5-its-not-what-we-know-its-what-we-dont-know/
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jonknee
This is blog spam. The interesting stuff is here:

[http://www.eetimes.com/General/DisplayPrintViewContent?conte...](http://www.eetimes.com/General/DisplayPrintViewContent?contentItemId=4215094)

~~~
tzs
The correct link is this:

[http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4215094/A5--All-
Appl...](http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4215094/A5--All-Apple--part-
mystery?pageNumber=0)

Links to the print version of an article are annoying. First, they are usually
formatted badly for reading on the screen (most people are not going to
actually print the article).

Second, sometimes they actually bring up a print dialog that needs to be
dismissed.

Third, those who want the print version can easily click on the "print" item
at the site. There often (such as in this case) no link that goes the other
way, so when you send someone straight to the print link, it is hard for them
to get to the regular, well formatted, page.

~~~
jonknee
If by well-formatted, you mean chopped up into five pages, I guess you got me.
I'll take the single page version (which for the record, does not trigger the
print dialog).

~~~
tzs
By "well-formatted" I mean reasonable line length. It is generally much easier
to read columns that are maybe 60 or so characters than to read columns that
are a couple hundred characters. The print page wraps to window size.

The main point, though, is that those who prefer the print version can simply
click the print link on the page. The print version does not provide a simple
way to go back.

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6ren
> Would it be possible to remove selected functionality or routines from
> software and implement them as hardwired circuits on the A5, going beyond
> selected IP blocks and designing circuits specific to the software?

Awesome, and Apple is in a position to do it. Imagine pushing down bits of the
OS (or even common app functionality) to silicon! But to voice a heresy: is
more performance needed?

I played with an iPad 2 last week, and it doesn't feel any faster than an iPad
1 (apart from occasional pauses disappearing). Now, this isn't a fair test,
because there wasn't any new software on it that took advantage of the greater
performance.

Will that software appear over time? Games will certainly find a way to use
it; but it's very striking to me that the iPad 1 was so well engineered that
it didn't seem to suffer from any performance problems. And the software
didn't seem to be lacking. Of course it's a truism that people will always
find a use for more processing power - but it doesn't seem to be true any
more. Computers are now fast enough for most people. Even new game console
generations are coming less slowly; the wii has less power; people are
preferring laptops, netbook, iPhones, even though they have less power than
desktops. That means that the extra performance isn't of absolutely _crucial_
importance. Maybe it's nice to have - but once something is fast enough, you
don't really notice if it's even faster.

Is it really possible that the iPad has _already_ overshot the performance
that the market requires? Is there an iPad app that makes you think "this
thing is so _slow_ , it's really irritating to use! If only it was a bit
faster..."

~~~
wmf
Dedicated logic can also be more energy-efficient than software, possibly
giving the same performance but longer battery life.

