iPad 4 came so early because the A6X chip was cheaper

Many analysts and tech lovers, but especially those who bought an iPad 3, wondered strongly why did Apple release the iPad 4 so soon. Some pointed out that they wanted to have a greater commercial impact, others that they wanted to reduce the advance of the then imminent Nexus 10. Today we have come across an explanation that seems to make a lot of sense and that is well argued: A6X chip is cheaper to produce than A5X.

It was something really illogical that just a few months after launching a tablet that had been described as a revolution in technology, it was replaced and without waiting for the classic one-year cycle in those of Cupertino. The flag of the third generation was the striking, outstanding and exclusive Retina display. And that is precisely where this whole story begins.

Moving the millions of pixels on the new screen required a beast of a graphics processor. Apple designed it and Samsung made it. A5X came with an ARM cortex-A9 dual-core CPU manufactured at 45 nm (nanometers), accompanied by a powerful GPU PowerVR SGX543MP4 Quad Core. In total the chip occupied 165 mm2, truly one of the largest ARM chips ever produced. Tegra 3 measures 82mm2 and A5 measures 122mm2, to give you an idea.

El A6X has been manufactured at 32 nm by Samsung from an apple design. Again, the chip comes with a 1,3 GHz dual-core CPU and a SGX 543MP3 Tri-core GPU. The chipo occupies only 92 mm2.

These conditions make it consume less energy, have many more power and, above, it turns out cheaper to produce.

This theory makes a lot of sense and more so if we apply the 20% price increase to the processors that Samsung manufactures for those in Cupertino. It seems that it is all a matter of numbers.

Source: Fudzilla