While Apple believes the mainstream cares more about iPad 2 experience and feeling than feeds and speeds, Anandtech clearly favors the latter and using an array of tests, they claim they've deduced that -- as suspected -- the Apple A5 system-on-a-chip is indeed powered by an ARM Cortex A9 CPU and Imagination PowerVR SGX 543MP2 GPU. It's also fast, beating out not only the 2010 iPad's A4 but the 2011 Motorola Zoom's Tegra 2 in a number of benchmark tests.

In the CPU and JavaScript render tests iPad 2 was a little faster than iOS 4.3 on iPad 1 and Android 3.0 Honeycomb on the Xoom. In GPU tests it was devastatingly faster. Faster as in it digs a hole, stomps them into the mud, refills the whole, stomps it again, and repeats ten more times before the others even try to fight back. It's fast.

What all these geekily benchmarked numbers mean in the real world is faster access to your web pages, especially JavaScript-heavy pages like Facebook, and far smoother, more detailed, and more high-performance graphics in everything from OS transitions to full 3D games.

In other words, Apple may have changed the specs into an experience fight, but they're more than got the SoC specs to make that experience.

(Can't wait for this to come to iPhone 5, can you?)

[Anandtech x2]

When Steve Jobs announced the dual-cored Apple A5 System-on-a-Chip (SoC) at the iPad 2 event, I assumed it was using an ARM Cortex A9 dual-core processor as its CPU. Last year's Apple A4 SoC used a single core, 1 GHz Cortex A8 after all, so why wouldn't the Apple A4's successor use the Cortex A8's successor? However, John Siracusa of Ars Technica raised an interesting alternative on this week's Hypercritical podcast -- what if Apple is instead use two Cortex A8 cores instead?

His argument was that, with the Cortex A9's architecture, it should be more than the 2x speed boost Steve Jobs claimed at the iPad 2 event. If it was more than 2x the speed, Apple would certainly have said so. 3x, 4x -- all look better on stage and on websites (much like the 9x graphics claim).

With previous year's 13-inch MacBook Pro, Apple stuck with old Intel Core2 Duo processors and Nvidia chipsets and when questioned about it, Steve Jobs replied that Apple thought major battery life and graphics improvements were more important that relatively minor CPU speed boosts.

Could the same be true with the Apple A5? Could Apple have stuck with the older Cortex A8 and shifted performance increases to the GPU (PowerVR SGX), all to keep that 10 hour battery life?

We'll have to wait for the teardowns to find out.

[Hypercritical]

Just like the original iPad debuted with an Apple A4 chip, iPad 2 is coming with an Apple A5 chip. What does that mean? In typical fashion Apple has been short on details saying only that it's dual-core, 1GHz, 2x faster for computational tasks and 9x faster for graphics, all while preserving the 10 hour battery life that made the A4 famous. They don't think we need to worry about what CPU or GPU they're using and how much RAM is on board to let that power breathe. But here's the thing -- many of us want to know exactly that.

This is the chip that will also power the 2011 iPhone 5, iPod touch 5, and Apple TV. We want answers. We can handle answers! So... stick with us after the break for everything we know about the new Apple A5 chip... and what we can guess.

CPU

Here's what Apple has to say about the new dual-core CPU:

Two powerful cores in one A5 chip mean iPad can do twice the work at once. You’ll notice the difference when you’re surfing the web, watching movies, making FaceTime video calls, gaming, and going from app to app to app. Multitasking is smoother, apps load faster, and everything just works better.

iPad, like all iOS devices is ARM-based. The original iPad used a single core Cortex A8 processor sped up to 1GHz, presumably by the geniuses at Intrisity -- a company Apple subsequently acquired. Apple is still a massive ARM licensee and the successor to the Cortex A8 is the multicore Cortex A9. This chip is forming the heart iPad competitors and it makes sense that Apple is using it in iPad 2 as well.

The Cortex A9 can scale upwards of 2GHz and while some may be disappointed Apple is sticking to 1GHz for iPad 2 there are always trade offs to be made, including temperature and most importantly -- battery life. If 2 times 1GHz cores are enough to give Apple the performance they want, the flexibility to do things like driving the iPad with one core and the HDMI-out display mirroring with the other, and keep 10 hours of battery life, that's a huge win.

UPDATE: It could also be dual ARM Cortex A8 cores.

GPU

And here's Apple on their new graphics performance:

With up to nine times the graphics performance, gameplay on iPad is even smoother and more realistic. And faster graphics help apps perform better — especially those with video. You’ll see it when you’re scrolling through your photo library, editing video with iMovie, and viewing animations in Keynote.

Apple has been using Imagination's PowerVR GPU's in iOS and since they own a stake in the company that's also unlikely to change. The latest generation PowerVR SGX543 is a likely candidate here, perhaps dual core as well. Apple is not only pushing tons of pixels for video and gaming on-device, but offering up to 1080p out as well. 9x graphics performance is a big claim, but this chip with its OpenGL 3.2 support is big enough to match it.

It will also be interesting to see if Apple is using their own OpenCL in A5, which lets the GPU help out the CPU when it's not otherwise engaged.

RAM

Apple doesn't talk about RAM in iOS devices. Not ever. The original iPad had an anemic 256 MB of RAM. That wasn't even enough to keep a few Safari pages in memory. iPhone 4 has 512 MB and wild internet rumors aside, that's the minimum we should see in iPad 2.

Competing tablets are going to ship with 1GB of RAM and it would be great to see Apple match that but given the economics of hitting a $499 price point, they'll try to get the most performance they can out of the least hardware they can so I'm not getting my hopes up.

Battery life

Hey, it's still phenomenal:

Even with the new thinner and lighter design, iPad has the same amazing 10-hour battery life.1 That’s enough juice for one flight across the ocean, or one movie-watching all-nighter, or a week’s commute across town. The power-efficient A5 chip and iOS keep battery life from fading away, so you can get carried away.

And Apple's making it a huge priority, which again means balancing out multiple cores, cycles, and memory with power efficiency.

The tear-down will tell

Apple won't be talking about A5 in detail any time soon, so we'll have to wait for March 11 and the iPad 2 to ship before it gets torn down and we find out for sure. Until then, those are my best guesses. What are yours?

The interwebs are once again lit up with speculation about the iPad's new Apple A4 chipset, this time because Ars Technica is saying that instead of the next-generation multicore ARM Cortex A9 unveiled at CES 2010, the iPad is using a variation of the last-generation AR Cortex A8 that powers the 2009 iPhone 3GS.

This is based on 1) Apple being secretive about the chipset and not bragging like other companies would 2) "multiple sources who are certain for different reasons that this is indeed the case."

First things first. Apple being secretive proves nothing. Apple is secretive about everything, and they've said before they don't discuss chipsets because they don't think it matters to consumer electronics users (and, hey, Apple is secretive). They didn't talk at all about the iPhone 3GS chipset -- all they said is it was twice as fast. We only know that it uses an ARM Cortex A8 because people bought it and tore it apart to find out.

As to the multiple sources, if one of the "different reasons" is direct knowledge of the chipset, then they could be exactly right. If not, then... eh, maybe, but we're back to waiting for the iPad to ship and people to tear it down.

In the interest of being complete, however, Ars speculates that if the iPad is indeed running the Cortex A8, this might be what's making it so fast:

it turns out that the the A4 is a 1GHz custom SoC with a single Cortex A8 core and a PowerVR SGX GPU. The fact that A4 uses a single A8 core hasn't been made public, but I've heard from multiple sources who are certain for different reasons that this is indeed the case. (I wish I could be more specific, but I can't.)

In all, the A4 is quite comparable to the other Cortex A8-based SoCs that are coming onto the market, except that the A4 has even less hardware. The iPad doesn't have much in the way of I/O, so the A4 itself can do away with the I/O that it doesn't need. In contrast, the typical Cortex A8-based SoC has more I/O hardware than a mobile phone can use, because you never know what customers will need which interface types.

Ars, like Venture Beat, also thinks Apple's PA Semi team may not be involved in the iPad because they're working on a variant for the 4th generation iPhone. Either way, they believe software will ultimately be more important than hardware -- which is something Apple's been saying for a while now.

So, do we care if the iPad has an ARM Cortex A8 rather than a Cortex A9? Do we want Apple pushing the hardware, or are we happy with them prioritizing software?

ARM is showing off their new Cortex A9 multi-core mobile processor, which will scale over 2Ghz at less than 0.25W of power per proc -- and since Apple is rumored to be a massive ARM licensee and Apple staff were hinting that developers should prepare themselves for multi-core, rumors once again resurface that this smoking hot chip might become part of the 4th generation iPhone and iPod touch. (As part of PA Semi system-on-a-chip, 'natch).

The current iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3, as well as a bunch of competing smartphones (and superphones, don't get us started!) use the ARM Cortex A8. MacRumors is guessing it might just make its way into the iTablet/iSlate as well.

CES is ramping up folks, and remember TiPb will be there, so we'll bring you back anything more we can find out.

Video highlights after the break...

During ARM's Q3 financial results announced today, 9to5Mac noticed this little gem:

including a license for ARM’s 2GHz implementation of a dual core Cortex-A9 processor.

We've heard about the Cortex A9 before. Purportedly, is 5x faster than an intel Atom, yet uses the same amount of power in a 60% smaller package.

Could this be for next year's iPhone? For a mythical (maybe even second generation) iTablet? We don't know, but 9to5mac speculates:

Apple is rumored to be an ARM licensee and that that they've reportedly split the PA Semi group up into two parts. One working on Smartphone chips the other working on tablet processors. It is now generally accepted that the Apple tablet will run a ARM Cortex processor. It will likely want a bit more horsepower than the ARM Cortex A8-class Samsung chip inside the iPhone 3GS.

Whether or not it's Apple, the PA Semi group is working on something, even if it won't be until next year that we get to see it. Anyone else care to speculate?

CNET has an interesting post up detailing what we can expect in the next generation ARM processor. Just yesterday we took a look at the iPhone 3G's ARM 11 vs. the new iPhone 3G S' Cortex ARM8 and the difference was impressive -- most impressive. Well, next year is promising a dual-core ARM Cortex A9...!

Icebike sent this in, wondering out loud: "Is it too soon to start speculating on 2010?" And the simple answer is "no, no it's not!" It's longstanding practice here at TiPb to wait a polite 1.372 seconds after a new iPhone model is introduced, and then begin with "So, next year--"

That spirit in mind, TiPb can't help but wonder what this, combined with multi-core PowerVR GPU's, wrapped up into custom system-on-chips by Papermaster, the PA Semi team, and all those new GPU gurus toiling away in Steve's basement, means for a 2010 iPhone? (No, I won't call it an iPhone HD -- yet!)

At the very least, I think DC comics is going to have to invent us a faster Flash!