It has been widely rumored that Apple plans to introduce their 3rd generation iPad on March 7th. The iPad 3 is expected to feature the new A6 System-On-A-Chip, which is said to include a quad core processor and a much faster graphics processing unit (GPU).
However there has been a photo leaked by China Website Weiphone that suggests the “SOC” for the latest version of the iPad will be called “A5X” rather than the previously speculated “A6”.
MacRumors Reports:
A date code of “1146” on the A5X indicates that it was manufactured in the 46th week of 2011, which would have corresponded to November 14-20.
Several other features are also visible on the logic board, including a pair of 16 GB flash memory chips from Hynix and a rectangular Apple-branded chip. That chip appears to correspond to power management chips found in previous iPad teardowns but which carries a higher part number, suggesting an upgraded part.
It is still unknown if the A5X will include a quad-core processor, or if it will just be a faster dual-core processor. It is possible that Apple has opted for a faster dual-core processor rather than a quad-core processor due to battery life issues.
Will you be disappointed if the iPad 3 doesn’t include a quad-core processor?
