New ARM chips headed for iPhone, Palm Pre?
ARM, the company that designs chips for the world's smartphones, said handset makers will deliver the first models using more than one processor core next year, as high-end mobile phones begin to mimic the hardware attributes of PCs.
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Palm Pre
(Credit: Palm )And that means top smartphone suppliers such as Apple and Palm, which both use ARM-based processors, will likely deliver models packing at least two cores inside the main processor--referred to as an application (or applications) processor.
This is a natural progression for high-end smartphones like the iPhone and Palm Pre as the software those phones run gets increasingly sophisticated.
"You'll definitely see handsets shipping with a dual-core A9 in 2010," James Bruce, wireless segment manager for ARM, said in a phone interview earlier this week, referring to the next-generation Cortex-A9 processor from ARM.
The Palm Pre uses a processor based on the current-generation Cortex A8. The iPhone also uses an Apple-branded chip that is based on an ARM design.
"The A8 is just a single core while the A9 will be dual-core, all the way up to quad-core to give smartphones an even bigger performance boost," Bruce said.
He said the move to dual-core phones should happen relatively quickly. "It's very aggressive. It's only going to be in a year's time that you're going to get these phones," he said.
And what about power consumption, a critical concern for smartphones looking to deliver all-day battery life? "What we've done on the A9 is actually make it more power efficient than the A8. The dual-core A9 will be coming out on 45-nanometer rather than the (current) 65-nanometer process," Bruce said. Generally, the smaller the geometries, the faster and more power-efficient the processor is.
Bruce continued. "With the dual-core running at maximum load there's probably going to be an increase of about 10 to 20 percent in power consumption but in general day to day use you're actually going to see better battery life."
Manufacturers are very strict about power-consumption caps, he said. "The manufacturers lay down the law that maximum power consumption of the processor is 300 milliwatts. In the mobile space, this is one of those golden rules that we have to live within," he said, speaking about the upcoming Cortex A9 processor.
An ARM diagram showing a quad-core Cortex-A9 processor
(Credit: ARM)By comparison, Intel's power-sipping Atom processor--used widely in Netbooks--is generally rated at more than 2 watts (2,000 milliwatts), though Intel is expected to get this down to smartphone territory with the future "Moorestown" processor.
Bruce also spoke about the speed of the current Cortex-A8 versus the previous ARM design. The principal reason for the performance boost is the A8's superscalar design, which means the processor can execute two separate instructions per clock cycle.
"You're getting a 2X increase (over the previous ARM design). "And actually the A9 takes that even further, It's a superscalar design but it's also an out-of-order design as well. There is some out-of-order aspects with the A8 but the A9 is a very aggressive out-of-order processor," he said. The ability to process instructions using an advanced out-of-order architecture typically results in better performance.
And graphics will follow suit. The upcoming multi-core OMAP 4 processor from Texas Instruments (the OMAP 3 is used in the Palm Pre) is based on the ARM Cortex-9 and will boast graphics that support 1080p video and high-definition record and playback, larger screen resolutions, and "digital SLR-like performance with 20 MP (megapixel) imaging," according to TI documentation.
Brooke Crothers has been an editor at large at CNET News, an analyst at IDC Japan, and an editor at The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, among other endeavors, including co-manager of an after-school math-and-reading center. He writes for the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
Apple puts out a new phone every year and this years 3G S (Sucker) Phone is a small upgrade and that brings the OS into line with current phones. Voice control (requires Mobile Me), Find my Phone (requires Mobile Me) and Erase my Phone (requires Mobile Me). So add $99 dollars to your phone price for Mobile Me.
MMS and Tethering aren't ready from AT&T. and are going to be an extra cost.
So without any extra money all you get is a faster processor a lousy 3 mega pixel camera and a compass. Sounds like my phone in 2005.
Apple's OS 3 isn't even multi - tasking. They used the same rectangle FUGLY DATED case as last year.
This year Apple & AT&T are living on the success of the original iPhone.
Be smart, Android, Palm & Winmo offer much better OS's.
Apple will come back with "we have 40 Million Apps". That may be the case but 99.9999% of them suck and the good ones are available on other platforms already.
And it is true, a lot of apps aren't really worth much if the best ones are available for the other phones.
Still, this forum is about the dual-core chips, and I'm sure the iPhone will eventually catch up in this. It's just that, once you have multi-tasking, you never want to lose it. (I can listen to music, have an email going, switch to the internet and copy-paste all I need into whatever app, etc).
The Motorola StarTrac phone had a web browser; but what good is it if has limited functionality or it's too hard to use or there's enough content to support it?? That's where the iPhone trumps all these phones. Easy to use, reliable (for the most part), lots of content ( podcast, songs, videos, and yes apps).
Don't knock Apple for simple making a better product.
Find my Phone and Erase my Phone are available through the 3.0 software, making it work for every iPhone, and that faster processor and more ram and possibly a graphics update is going to lead to some pretty sweet games that are exclusive to the iPhone 3Gs
@crboone
you do realize that what you describe as multitasking is exactly what my phone can do on iPhone 3.0 right?
Guess what? AT&T just announced that they are already sold out of iPhone 3G S. So you can now crawl back under your rock.
I can listen to music, have an email going, switch to the internet and copy-paste all I need into whatever app, etc" -crboone
the iPhone can do all of that and better, people like you who have no idea how it all really works just read in these articles and think you cant do all of those things without true multitasking, you can easily cut copy and paste from other apps or the web and paste them into an email even if you start typing the email first you can stop go to other apps or the web and grab what you want and go right back to your email exacty where you left of quickly, and all while listening to your music continuously
I doubt that Voice control would require Mobile me. It should be built into the OS.
MobileMe (formerly .Mac and iTools) is a subscription-based collection of online services and software offered by Apple Inc. A command into the iPhone to 'Play MGMT' is NOT going to go onto the internet to perform such a task.
DOH!
The iPhone has been missing this feature from day 1 and it's only available on the new 3Gs.
My Motorola v551 from 5 years ago had this feature yet Apple isnt' making it available on the older iPhones.
"Your" does not equal "you are". The word you are wanting is "you're".
I've said it for 10 years or more ARM designs have tremendous potential.
Apple's telling the millions of people out there-- you can now manage your iPhone just as good if not better than big companies paying IT folks thousands of dollars. And this freedom and manageability doesn't come free; but at $99 per year what business person can't afford that?
Think about. Now Joe Blow can actually be much more productive than if he's working for a Fortune 500 company- that my friends is power to the people!
Guess what? Just because AT&T sold a bunch of phones DOESN'T mean it's better.
See: a bunch of people using IE.
Chris
http://gizmodo.com/5289506/atts-iphone-3gs-pre+orders-already-sold-out
"Your" does not equal "you are". The word you are wanting is "you're".
Typo in the phrase "all day batter life".
F**kin English majors. LOL
Anyway, what I want to know is why they can't offer a $99 ipod??
If you're talking about the iPod touch, the component costs (bill of materials) was around $150 in late 2007 (according to an iSuppli teardown). Since there is no long-term cellular contract for the iPod touch, it is priced higher than a carrier-subsidized iPhone so Apple can make their profit margin.
In a few markets, the iPhone is available no strings attached, but at the retail price around US$700. Apple is not doing anything unique; many phones are considerably pricier when there is no carrier subsidy.
- by ahickey June 15, 2009 1:33 AM PDT
- With the ARM designs becoming more powerful it won't be smart phones that see the biggest difference. It will be the netbooks/smarbooks.
- Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (44 Comments)There is the potential to hit the $200 price point with 6 hours battery life for a 9? smartbook that will do video playback. It will have to run a version of Linux, but for the price it would be worth it.
I find it interesting that you hear people complaining that the Linux doesn?t work like Windows and that the applications are different, while at the same time these self-same people have no problems using iPhone, Nokia Phone, Blackberrys, Kindle, Media players. All of which have a different interface. It?s different. Some say better, some say worse, but, it?s just different. Work with it and it becomes easy.