You all know that "under the hood" of the iPad 2 hides an A5 chip with a dual-core processor with a frequency of 1GHz and 512 MB LPDDR2 RAM with a frequency of 1066MHz. This new chip implemented by Apple in iPad 2 is $10 more expensive than the Nvidia Tegra 2 chip used in Android terminals. Basically, A5 costs $25, it has much faster memory than Nvidia Tegra 2, but also a much more powerful graphics chip. You think Apple made a bad deal paying almost double on the A5 chip? If so, then you are wrong because Apple has entered into partnerships with certain suppliers and due to the extremely large number of components it will purchase, it has managed to reduce the final price of the A5 chip to only 15%. Leaving the costs aside, you probably saw that in most of the tests the processor frequency value was displayed at 800MHz and this is due to the fact that Apple has implemented a dynamic processor clocking system that changes the frequency depending on the load and increases the battery autonomy.
"To help with their margins," UBM engineer and technical marketing manager Allan Yogasingam told AppleInsider, "this basically guarantees the A5 will be in most next generation Apple products like the iPhone 5 and the iPod Touch. It will help bring the costs down to the $15 range of their competition – especially if they have a plan in place to ramp up production through another fab like TSMC."
Yes, Apple has a processor that costs the same as the Nvidia Tegra 2, but which has clearly superior performance, at least from a graphical point of view, an iPad 2 surpasses the Motorola Xoom in synthetic tests. The good part is that this A5 chip will be available in the iPhone 5 in the summer and in the iPod Touch/Apple TV in the fall, practically all iDevices switching to dual-core processors this year. I saw how fast it is load Cydia on a dual-core processor and I for one am extremely extremely interested in getting my hands on an iPad 2 tablet and I am waiting for the new games specially designed for this tablet.
