The Significance of the A4

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Here’s an interesting article at MacWorld on the Apple A4 microprocessor, the CPU for the iPad and the first Apple-branded system-on-a-chip: Apple inside: the significance of the iPad’s A4 chip.

With the A4, Apple still maintains its long-standing relationship with ARM while delivering on performance, with a design that no competitor can use in its own products. More to the point, the A4 puts a very critical part of Apple’s iPad under its very own control. And that move is unprecedented.

Going back to the earliest days of the Mac, Apple chose Motorola’s 68k series of chips to power its Macs because they offered better performance than Intel’s equivalent technology. In the early ’90s, the company migrated its Macs to the PowerPC architecture when Motorola couldn’t deliver a 68k processor as fast and as energy efficient as Intel’s Pentium series. Then, when the major vendors behind the PowerPC couldn’t keep pace with Intel’s Pentium IV and AMD’s Athlon series, Apple switched its Macs once more—this time to Intel’s own Core series.

Today, Macs remain beholden to Intel’s specifications. If Intel can’t keep pace, Apple will have to find yet another vendor for CPUs. But now, with the iPad’s A4, Apple has demonstrated a new option: It has the ability to take existing designs and repurpose them to give its own products better performance than the competition.

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54 comments
1 darthstar  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 8:31:16pm

Back to the proprietary model? That'll go over well.

2 Summer Seale  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 8:40:02pm

re: #1 darthstar

Back to the proprietary model? That'll go over well.

That's what I was thinking but I guess it was inevitable with the locked-down models that Apple has been producing lately for their product releases.

Only time will tell what will happen with all that. =)

I do love Apple stuff - very, very much. But Jobs definitely is a control maniac.

3 brucee  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 8:40:30pm

Meh, Apple is hyping A4.

A4 is just another SOC like Tegra or dozen others, it even uses same ARM Cortex A9 as Tegra 2 does and since the controller is also ARM, then it's probably same one as Tegra 2 as well.

Unless Steve Jobs buys out ARM they can't claim an all ARM processor as their own invention.

4 freetoken  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 8:45:47pm

re: #3 brucee

Unless Steve Jobs buys out ARM they can't claim an all ARM processor as their own invention.

They've made no such claim. What they have said is that the A4 leads the pack of ARM based SoC in use today.

5 Racer X  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 8:50:43pm

The iPad is an iPhone on steroids. The iphone totally changed the game (have you seen all of those freaking amazing apps?!?). The iPad will revolutionize personal computing.

IMHO.

6 freetoken  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 8:54:18pm

Wow, Newsnow, the UK based news funnel, is fast... they already have this blog entry up at the top of the "What's Hot" iPad list.

7 reine.de.tout  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 8:56:04pm

re: #5 Racer X

The iPad is an iPhone on steroids. The iphone totally changed the game (have you seen all of those freaking amazing apps?!?). The iPad will revolutionize personal computing.

IMHO.

Friend of mine has a disabled son.

He likes to use her iPod Touch, but it's so small that he has difficulty operating it.

She thinks the iPad could be exactly the ticket for him.

8 darthstar  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 8:58:40pm

re: #5 Racer X

The iPad is an iPhone on steroids. The iphone totally changed the game (have you seen all of those freaking amazing apps?!?). The iPad will revolutionize personal computing.

IMHO.

Personal computing has already been revolutionized. Apple's just milking their market...and they'll do okay.

9 MandyManners  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:02:30pm

I thought the A4 was a road in England.

10 freetoken  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:03:45pm

re: #9 MandyManners

I thought the A4 was an Audi model...

11 Kruk  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:05:00pm

re: #10 freetoken

I thought A4 was a paper size...

12 Racer X  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:06:50pm

re: #8 darthstar

Personal computing has already been revolutionized. Apple's just milking their market...and they'll do okay.

They'll do more than OK. I'm putting together a proposal to use these in one of our departments - 3,000 users. It will be perfect.

13 freetoken  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:12:49pm

OT (so soon?): For those who missed it, over on AmericanThinker (cough), Jack Cashill is pushing an even more looney idea on the "origins" of Barack Obama.

All one has to do is read the comments over there to realize just how messed up the tea partying far right has become in this country.

14 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:14:54pm

re: #13 freetoken

OT (so soon?): For those who missed it, over on AmericanThinker (cough), Jack Cashill is pushing an even more looney idea on the "origins" of Barack Obama.

All one has to do is read the comments over there to realize just how messed up the tea partying far right has become in this country.

Google link?

15 jaunte  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:18:36pm

re: #13 freetoken

Good grief. More bizarre speculations.

Cashill does miss the fundamental fact that this country is about what you yourself do, not who your father was.

16 The Left  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:18:44pm

re: #13 freetoken

OT (so soon?): For those who missed it, over on AmericanThinker (cough), Jack Cashill is pushing an even more looney idea on the "origins" of Barack Obama.

All one has to do is read the comments over there to realize just how messed up the tea partying far right has become in this country.

Oh my god, insanity. And I haven't even gotten to the comments yet.

Short version for peeps here: Either Obama is the illegitimate son of his grandfather with a black prostitute, raised by his 'sister' Stanley Ann, OR he's the son of an anonymous black guy in Seattle.
What. The. Hell.

17 freetoken  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:24:07pm

re: #14 Dark_Falcon

Google link?

Not yet cached, as far as I can tell.

18 webevintage  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:24:29pm

re: #16 iceweasel

Oh my god, insanity. And I haven't even gotten to the comments yet.

CRAZY PEOPLES R CRAZY

19 Gus  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:26:05pm

re: #17 freetoken

Not yet cached, as far as I can tell.

First link here.

20 jaunte  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:27:02pm

re: #16 iceweasel

Oh my god, insanity. And I haven't even gotten to the comments yet.


One commenter is troubled by the President's 'sorted' past.

21 freetoken  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:28:00pm

re: #16 iceweasel


Short version for peeps here: Either Obama is the illegitimate son of his grandfather with a black prostitute, raised by his 'sister' Stanley Ann, OR he's the son of an anonymous black guy in Seattle.
What. The. Hell.

In either case, if it were true, then President Obama is indeed a natural born US citizen, so the 'nirthers would have no legal claim.

Thus, for the nirthers to latch onto this idea is about as strange as a nutty idea could be... they don't realize they are abandoning their original claims of ineligibility.

But then again, this whole issue really has nothing to do about eligibility - that has always been nothing more than a cover.

22 The Left  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:28:46pm

re: #18 webevintage

CRAZY PEOPLES R CRAZY

Sampling:

I spent quite a bit of time researching this issue, and find this report very convincing. So much so, that perhaps my own conclusions need to be reexamined.
I was very convinced that Malcolm X was his father, for many reasons, least of which is the STRIKING facial resemblance between the two-almost like twins separated at birth

There's some consensus there that the birth certificate doesn't matter now, because what REALLY matters are....Obama's SAT scores.
Thanks, Breitbart!

23 jaunte  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:29:54pm

Sorted is as sorted does, Forrest.

24 webevintage  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:31:53pm

re: #22 iceweasel

There's some consensus there that the birth certificate doesn't matter now, because what REALLY matters are...Obama's SAT scores.
Thanks, Breitbart!

Just so damn desperate to prove this black dude has no right to be President.

Who cares about his SATs? Will they have anything to do with him being President. Why do they care? Don't they have lives, families or hobbies.
Does Breibart live in his mother's basement?

25 Gus  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:32:38pm

re: #22 iceweasel

There's some consensus there that the birth certificate doesn't matter now, because what REALLY matters are...Obama's SAT scores.
Thanks, Breitbart!

Got some crazier ones there:

Our dear own Central Intelligence Agency has the means, the technology, the personel, and the money to cover-up the biggest lie ever place on the American People by our own government.

Somehow, somewhere, the words "government of the people and by the people" got preverted into the CIA and elites running everything. Obama is just a puppet for those powerful enough to threaten news agencies, state governments, the SCOTUS, and the FBI......and that leads us back to the only agency in the world that could pull this off.....the CIA.

I don't need to think up scenerios for Obama citizenship status, I just want to see the transcripts because it will lead directly to those powerful enough to pull this off.

Yep, American Thinker. Oh the irony.

26 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:35:41pm

re: #18 webevintage

CRAZY PEOPLES R CRAZY

Agreed. The article contains a photo of Barack Obama and his Maternal Grandfather taken when Obama was a child. The reaction of normal people would be "That's a nice shot for the family album." Jack Cashill instead uses it as an accompaniment to a conspiracy theory. That's just to me the start of how warped this article is. It deserves its own thread, with the elephant seal.

27 cliffster  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:35:52pm

re: #24 webevintage

Just so damn desperate to prove this black dude has no right to be President.

Who cares about his SATs? Will they have anything to do with him being President. Why do they care? Don't they have lives, families or hobbies.
Does Breibart live in his mother's basement?

I rode my SAT scores for awhile - right into about 5 months of unemployment. Amazing what you can do with your life once you kick those laurels to the curb

28 jamesfirecat  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:38:07pm

re: #16 iceweasel

Oh my god, insanity. And I haven't even gotten to the comments yet.

Short version for peeps here: Either Obama is the illegitimate son of his grandfather with a black prostitute, raised by his 'sister' Stanley Ann, OR he's the son of an anonymous black guy in Seattle.
What. The. Hell.

If he was the son of an anonymous black guy in Seattle wouldn't he still be free and clear to run for President?

29 jamesfirecat  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:38:41pm

re: #13 freetoken

OT (so soon?): For those who missed it, over on AmericanThinker (cough), Jack Cashill is pushing an even more looney idea on the "origins" of Barack Obama.

All one has to do is read the comments over there to realize just how messed up the tea partying far right has become in this country.

Nobody seems to have cared much about Apple so bring on the crazy!

30 reine.de.tout  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:38:52pm

re: #20 jaunte

One commenter is troubled by the President's 'sorted' past.

"sorted" past?
ROFL!

Do you suppose they mean his "assorted" racial make-up, or his "sordid" past?

Hell - has there been any hint that he's led a "sordid" life?
Like- say, Sanford? Or Edwards?

31 webevintage  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:39:00pm

From the end of the American Thinker "article".

If my humble efforts to clarify matters make me a "birther," then so be it.

No.
They just make you crazy.

32 cliffster  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:40:01pm

re: #30 reine.de.tout

Hell - has there been any hint that he's led a "sordid" life?
Like- say, Sanford? Or Edwards?

He smoked weed, the evil communist.

33 jamesfirecat  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:40:04pm

re: #22 iceweasel

There's some consensus there that the birth certificate doesn't matter now, because what REALLY matters are...Obama's SAT scores.
Thanks, Breitbart!

Oh dear god.

"The striking facial resemblance"

They do realize what they're doing don't they?

I mean that's a 75 mile an hour "fast ball" right down the center of the plate.

Okay here it comes.

(Cough)

So I guess all black people look alike to you....

34 Gus  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:41:24pm

re: #26 Dark_Falcon

Agreed. The article contains a photo of Barack Obama and his Maternal Grandfather taken when Obama was a child. The reaction of normal people would be "That's a nice shot for the family album." Jack Cashill instead uses it as an accompaniment to a conspiracy theory. That's just to me the start of how warped this article is. It deserves its own thread, with the elephant seal.

Sample of the garbage by conspiracy theorist Jack Cashill at American Thinker:

For another, there is little known about the marriage between Stanley Ann Dunham, Obama's presumed mother, and Barack Obama, Sr. According to most accounts, Dunham and Barack Sr. were married on the Hawaiian island of Maui -- in some reports on February 2, 1961, and in others, on February 21.

Obama knows little about the wedding. He writes in Dreams, "In fact, how and when the marriage occurred remains a bit murky, a bill of particulars that I've never quite had the courage to explore. There's no record of a real wedding, a cake, a ring, a giving away of the bride."

In his fair-minded biography, Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage, Christopher Andersen concedes, "There were certainly no witnesses -- no family members were present; and none of their friends at the university had the slightest inkling they were even engaged."

Notice how he says presumed mother.

Let's see, he didn't know much about his parents wedding. Hope they don't quiz me about that because I'm not very familiar with my parents wedding. Especially those took part in it. I assume my grandparents and uncles were there. Also, does Cashill ever think about how it was a "mixed race wedding" that took place in 1961?

35 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:45:02pm

re: #34 Gus 802

Notice how he says presumed mother.

Let's see, he didn't know much about his parents wedding. Hope they don't quiz me about that because I'm not very familiar with my parents wedding. Especially those took part in it. I assume my grandparents and uncles were there. Also, does Cashill ever think about how it was a "mixed race wedding" that took place in 1961?

I doubt he thinks about anything other than "proving" Obama is not eligable to be President. He's convinced that there's a cover-up and he's not going to let facts or logic get in the way of his crusade. The Troof is out there!!1

36 Gus  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:45:19pm

re: #22 iceweasel

There's some consensus there that the birth certificate doesn't matter now, because what REALLY matters are...Obama's SAT scores.
Thanks, Breitbart!

This was from the Cashill article:

I responded that although I was troubled by the lack of documentation regarding all phases of Obama's history -- I'd be content with his SAT scores -- I could not understand why any pregnant American woman would go anywhere near Kenya.

What a freak.

37 jamesfirecat  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:45:28pm

re: #34 Gus 802

Notice how he says presumed mother.

Let's see, he didn't know much about his parents wedding. Hope they don't quiz me about that because I'm not very familiar with my parents wedding. Especially those took part in it. I assume my grandparents and uncles were there. Also, does Cashill ever think about how it was a "mixed race wedding" that took place in 1961?

It's the summer of Loving.... V Virginia!

38 The Sanity Inspector  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:47:10pm

re: #9 MandyManners

I thought the A4 was a road in England.

Silly! The significance of the A4 is that John McCain flew one in Vietnam.

39 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:51:31pm

Here's the last line of Cashill's story:


If my humble efforts to clarify matters make me a "birther," then so be it.

Reminds of the words of so many trolls, daring Charles to boot them. He obliges them, of course.

40 WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.]  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:52:34pm

re: #10 freetoken

I thought the A4 was an Audi model...

Upding for Volkswagen Auto Group :D

41 The Sanity Inspector  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:53:14pm

Those who in their youth did not live in self harmony, and who did not gain the true treasures of life, are later like long-legged old herons standing sadly by a lake without fish.
-- The Dhammapada

'Night all.

42 laZardo  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:54:35pm

re: #11 Kruk

I thought A4 was a paper size...

I thought it was an airplane.

/HIIIGHWAY TOOO THE DANGER ZONE!

43 Jadespring  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 9:57:18pm

re: #42 laZardo

I thought it was an airplane.

/HIIIGHWAY TOOO THE DANGER ZONE!

Damn you. Now I have that song in my head.

It also brought up painful memories of teenage years where I had posters of Tom Cruise and F14s on my walls. Icky ugh.

44 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 10:02:03pm

re: #42 laZardo

I thought it was an airplane.

/HIIIGHWAY TOOO THE DANGER ZONE!

That part of Top Gun was indeed accurate. The A-4 Skyhawk was indeed used as the OpFor aircraft at Miramar at that time. It was also, as has been noted, the fighter flown by Sen .John McCain. Overall, I think that A-4 will ultimately be better known as a fighter rather than a computer.

45 laZardo  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 10:05:24pm

re: #44 Dark_Falcon

That part of Top Gun was indeed accurate. The A-4 Skyhawk was indeed used as the OpFor aircraft at Miramar at that time. It was also, as has been noted, the fighter flown by Sen .John McCain. Overall, I think that A-4 will ultimately be better known as a fighter rather than a computer.

I actually didn't think there was a link. q: I just remembered the A-4 as one of the starter aircraft from Ace Combat 2, whose soundtrack was actually very Top-Gun-ish.

46 austin_blue  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 10:15:22pm

re: #21 freetoken

In either case, if it were true, then President Obama is indeed a natural born US citizen, so the 'nirthers would have no legal claim.

Thus, for the nirthers to latch onto this idea is about as strange as a nutty idea could be... they don't realize they are abandoning their original claims of ineligibility.

But then again, this whole issue really has nothing to do about eligibility - that has always been nothing more than a cover.

Ya think?

47 Gus  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 10:20:54pm

re: #44 Dark_Falcon

That part of Top Gun was indeed accurate. The A-4 Skyhawk was indeed used as the OpFor aircraft at Miramar at that time. It was also, as has been noted, the fighter flown by Sen .John McCain. Overall, I think that A-4 will ultimately be better known as a fighter rather than a computer.

Or aggressors. I you look in the background you can also see an F-14 Tomcat (#33). More here.

These are late versions and they were first used for the ACM training at Top Gun with the Phantoms. This was really Navy Fighter Weapons School which was started by Capt. Frank Ault. This was due in large part because of the losses the Navy suffered in Vietnam because ACM was ignored because of the fighter interceptor roles placed on the military due to the Cold War (hence going after Bears).

It was also because of the un-gunned Navy Phantom and the poor performance of the Sparrow missile. The Sidewinder was always a better performer because it's a heat seeker. The Skyhawk is a cool little jet (attack) and I saw it fly a few times.

48 Jadespring  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 10:24:36pm

I sat in an A-4 once and F-14 once. No go on trying to convince the pilots to go up for a spin though.

49 Dark_Falcon  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 10:30:15pm

re: #47 Gus 802

Or aggressors. I you look in the background you can also see an F-14 Tomcat (#33). More here.

These are late versions and they were first used for the ACM training at Top Gun with the Phantoms. This was really Navy Fighter Weapons School which was started by Capt. Frank Ault. This was due in large part because of the losses the Navy suffered in Vietnam because ACM was ignored because of the fighter interceptor roles placed on the military due to the Cold War (hence going after Bears).

It was also because of the un-gunned Navy Phantom and the poor performance of the Sparrow missile. The Sidewinder was always a better performer because it's a heat seeker. The Skyhawk is a cool little jet (attack) and I saw it fly a few times.

Sparrow always had trouble. The eventual solution was its replacement by the current AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile). Sidewinder is actually remarkable as being one the few US weapons designed to be cheap, simple to maintain, and easy to built. These were usually qualities such after by Soviet designers. and when the Soviet union finally received an intact Sidewinder warhead, they held it and its designer, William McLean, up as examples to follow.

50 Gus  Sun, Feb 7, 2010 10:34:57pm

re: #49 Dark_Falcon

Sparrow always had trouble. The eventual solution was its replacement by the current AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile). Sidewinder is actually remarkable as being one the few US weapons designed to be cheap, simple to maintain, and easy to built. These were usually qualities such after by Soviet designers. and when the Soviet union finally received an intact Sidewinder warhead, they held it and its designer, William McLean, up as examples to follow.

Yeah. The problems I read about the Sparrow also had to do with storage and exposure to the elements while out at sea. Wiring, connections, etc. With the Sidewinder it's essentially "point and shoot" and it's autonomous from there on. As you know.

Cool TA-4 Skyhawk - Blue Angels. There some folks doing restorations of the Skyhawks and they're up and operational already.

51 hugh59  Mon, Feb 8, 2010 4:27:41am

I think the A4 is fantastic. Oh wait, you are talking about a microprocessor...I am talking about my car. Never mind. ;-)

52 hugh59  Mon, Feb 8, 2010 4:29:16am

I just watched the animated film SPIRITED AWAY for the first time over the weekend. The car driven by the family at the beginning was an Audi A4.

53 Mike Haas  Mon, Feb 8, 2010 7:27:11am

re: #5 Racer X

1st Post - Hello, all. Whereas I'm not certain that the iPad will "revolutionize" computing, I think it'll be a great device for those folks who'd rather not try to maintain a PC or laptop but want to be able to email, surf, fiddle with pictures, play music, games, etc. on a screen large enough to read easy.

As for me - lack of Flash is a deal breaker for me. I thought Jobs pretty arrogant to suggest that HTML5 should or would replace Flash. True, Flash is clunky and fat but its also a current standard. Jobs cripples his products with his own biases - like not enabling audio over DisplayPort.

Mike

54 andres  Mon, Feb 8, 2010 10:28:08am

re: #53 Mike Haas

The current Flash implementation in a Mac leaves a lot to desire. It is very buggy and can overheat the system. I don't fault Jobs for trying to stay away from Flash.


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