Purported A7 Chip Sighting Suggests Further iPhone 5S Production Ramp-Up
Posted by Michael Nace under Apple News, iPhone 5 Predictions on Monday Feb 18, 2013Rumors out of Asia today that Apple is commissioning components suppliers for two tweaked forms of its flawed in-cell screen technology for use in the iPhone 5S are now joined by a late-breaking sighting of what purports to be the A7 chip. The photo comes by way of gsmarena.com, who posted it as coming from “iOSDoc.” iOSDoc was unable to corroborate their source any more than assuring us that it is “very reliable.”
The article goes on to give us a bit of insight into this purported sighting of the A7:
According to the source, the number of CPU cores and amount of RAM have both been doubled, meaning the A7 chipset packs a quad-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and 2GB of RAM. The RAM clockspeed will reportedly take a hit, though – going from LPDDR2-1066 to LPDDR-800. The GPU will reportedly be PowerVR SGX554MP4 (quad-core) like in the iPad 4, up from SGX543MP3 (tri-core) in the iPhone 5.
From what I have read over the past months about what is expected from the A7, these specs seem to be in line with what the competition is offering and what hard core tech enthusiasts are expecting — particularly the upping the amount of RAM. In addition, it can be said that the rumor itself is rather safe — including the fact that we’re getting sight of the A7 on the same day that we’ve heard from Asia about in-cell display rumors ramping up.
I’ve said before on the blog that, more than any other component, the processor can be the most easily faked. I’m no Photoshop expert, but to me, it would be exceedingly easy ro superimpose an “A7″ onto a photo like this. Even more interesting is the grainyness of the photo, which puts a kind of diffuse patina onto the chip’s lettering, making it look like it has been around for quite a while.
Of course, this isn’t to say that the rumor is a fake, and the fact is, imagining the A7 in production now would fit into the developing picture that the iPhone could once again be introduced at the WWDC in June. Given that the display and processor could already be in progress, most of the iPhone 5S would also be in progress as well, since the 5S is bound to offer little if any change to the form factor or aesthetics.
As a footnote, the article mentioned that, “the tipster also mentioned that Siri will get cool new abilities in iOS 7.” It would have been nice to hear more about what these “cool, new abilities” for iOS 7 will turn out to be, but again, the notion that iPhone 5S will feature software upgrades more so than software ones rings true.
By Michael Nace











