Trust iFixit to send a member of their team to Australia just so they could be the first to tear down Apples new iPad. Although much is already known about the new hardware, iFixits teardown did reveal some interesting design changes that give us some interesting revelations of potential future products from Apple.
As it goes, most mobile devices that use ARM processors – with the exception of some of the Tegra 3 based tablets – use an SoC with support for a PoP package for the DRAM and this was also the case with past iPads from Apple. However, the new A5X SoC has reverted from this and gone back to a more traditional approach with the DRAM mounted on the same PCB as the rest of the components. Although its not entirely clear as to what kind of packaging Apple is using for the A5X, its clear that were looking at a larger chip and its obviously running a fair bit hotter than the A5, judging by the heat spreader on the chip.
The new iPad appears to use a standard dual-channel memory configuration with a pair of 512MB Elpida LP-DDR2 DRAM chips. The network chip has of course been upgraded to the same BCM4330 as the iPhone 4S and beyond dual-band Wi-Fi support it also offers Bluetooth 4.0 + HS connectivity and an FM transceiver. The 3G/4G modem is Qualcomms MDM9600 which is pretty much par for the course when it comes to 3G/LTE modem solutions at the moment.
The change to a new package for the A5X SoC suggests that Apple might be trying out some new hardware designs inside the new iPad and considering the rumours that Apple are working on an ARM powered MacBook Air, this isnt too farfetched. The simple reason for this is that a larger device wouldnt need to use such a highly integrated PCB as a phone and moving away from a PoP package has some other advantages, such as the ability to improve the cooling of the SoC. Well see how things evolve, but as far as what Apple is planning for the future, no-one knows but Apple itself.
Source: iFixit
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