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The next generation iPhone and iPad will be based upon a new version of Apple’s A4 system-on-chip, adding multiple ARM CPU cores and multiple PowerVR graphics according to a report by Apple Insider.
In the last week rumours have appeared, echoed by Digg founder Kevin Rose, that the iPad 2 expected to appear this quarter will have a higher resolution display. Reports have since emerged that the iPad 2 display will be 2048 x 1536 pixels which represents a four-fold increase over the original iPad’s 1024 x 768 pixels.
The screen resolution details came to light from apparent iPad support built into the iBooks 2 application which already contains media suitable for the higher resolution display. The iPad 2 display stops short of the record-breaking iPhone 4 ‘retina’ display but is still considerably higher than any similar device.
Apple Insider reported that the next-generation A5 chip in the iPhone 5 and iPad 2 will also bundle more than one PowerVR SGX532 graphics processing unit, each of which is said to be around twice the performance of the current model’s PowerGV SGX535, which would in theory give the devices around four times the 3D horsepower of the previous devices.
The device will also reportedly feature multiple ARM Cortex-A9 CPU cores, presumably two like similar devices such as the Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset.
Rose had also claimed that iPad 2 is due for launch in early February. If true then the iPad 2 will beat the next-generation crop of Android 3.0 tablets to the market, offering similar horsepower but with a considerably higher resolution screen.
