Apple iPad A4 SoC Based On ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore Clocking at 1GHz

Apple’s iPad tablet PC has just been announced and If you wonder what type of processor being designed to power up the long anticipated machine, you may able to get some clue here. The processor, codenamed as A4 is believed to be developed by PA Semi earlier, a semiconductor company that been acquired by Apple Inc back to April 2008 but with its main core and IP still based around ARM architecture.

The core itself is based on ARM architecture that been widely deployed in smartphone and handheld device. To be more specific, it is relied on ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore which is one of the famous architecture being used such as on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and Nvidia’s Tegra processors. And to make it a truly SoC, it integrates some functionality such as memory controller and Mali 50-Series graphics engine that has able to further reduce its foot print while putting TDP (Thermal Design Power) to lower value.

In terms of deltas between Samsung ARM processor being used in iPhone 3Gs, A4 obviously has been upgraded in terms of speed grade to clock at 1GHz, which is almost doubling as compared to Samsung processor running at 0.6GHz. And surprisingly, the high performance and low power SoC is thermally efficient and able to extend the battery life up to 10 hours, making it perfect companion for solid mobility on the move.