microprocessor

iPhone 4 to have 512MB of RAM, double the 3GS and iPad?

Apple has traditionally been — how shall we put it — cagey with revealing memory and CPU specifics of its mobile devices, but MacRumors is today reporting its discovery that the fourth-gen iPhone’s RAM apportionment will be a very healthy 512MB.


Fourth generation iPhone teardown reveals A4 microprocessor?

See the marking on that chip with the Apple logo.


Apple’s A4 SoC faces Qualcomm Snapdragon in knock-down-drag-out benchmarking test

Up until now, a shroud of mystery has surrounded Apple’s custom engineered A4 system-on-chip ; we know it’s clocked at 1GHz, likely tied to Apple’s prior acquisition of P.A. Semi and manufactured by Samsung. Outside of that, the only other knowledge we’ve gained has come not from the mouth of Cupertino, but from the extracting wizards over at iFixit .


Microprocessor mega-shocker: self-assembling silicon chips could lead to ever smaller circuitry

Researchers have been hard at work for the past few years trying to build computer chips using self-assembling circuitry built of molecules — meaning that they’re incredibly teensy. Some researchers at MIT seem to have gotten the hang of this nano-business, according to a paper just published in Nature and Nanotechnology (which also happens to be our favorite magazine after Offset Print Enthusiast ). They’ve made a pretty good leap forward recently, by using electron-beam lithography to make patterns of nano-posts on a silicon chip, which are deposited with special polymers, resulting in a hookup between the polymer and the posts which arrange themselves into useful patterns all on their own


Intel said to be cooking up DDR3-lovin’ Atom N475 and Atom N455 CPUs

We’ve maintained that Intel’s range of Atom chips were simply too weak to really love and adore the way a slab of silicon should be, but that’s probably because of our infatuation with things like “overclocking” and “Core i7 Extremes.” Whatever the case, it’s beginning to look a wee bit better for the lineup, as Fudzilla has it that the company will be adding DDR3 memory support to the 1.83GHz N475 and 1.6GHz N455. Both of those chips are expected to maintain their current TDP ratings, and both are expected to launch in Q3 of this year. Nah, DDR3 compatibility won’t make your next netbook scream or anything, but when we’re talking Atoms, we’ll take all the baby steps we can get.