Apple reportedly working on two new chipsets

With all eyes turned towards Europe and more specifically at the Mobile World Congress being held at Barcelona, a few eyes are still looking at the on-goings that are taking place in the Apple camp. The brand is expected to launch the next generation of the iPad on the 7th of March and the Internet is rife with rumours and speculations as to what the new tablet will possess. There had been indications in the past stating that the brand is readying to launch the iPad 3 with a quad-core A6 chipset. However, these suggestions were quickly rebuffed by stating that the brand will launch an A5X chipset, instead. Previous reports also showed a picture of the logic board of what is believed to be the iPad 3’s logic board and this shows the A5X chip. As per a new report by 9to5Mac, Apple is in fact actually working on both chipsets – the A6 as well as the A5X.




A report in the past showed the naming process in which Apple names their chipsets. As reported previously, “An "A5X" is a step-wise upgrade to the A5 corresponds with progression of processor part numbers. The A4 was known to be the S5L8930X, the A5 as the S5L8940X and the new iPad processor as S5L8945X.” The report by 9to5Mac goes on to say that taking this into consideration, an A6 processor would feature the name S5L8950X. They indicate, “Deep in the iOS 5.1 betas sits references to two next-generation iOS device chips: the previously discussed S5L8945X and this new S5L8950X. While nobody found the 50X (A6) chip in the code until now, we can report that both next-generation processors entered the iOS code simultaneously. This would seem to indicate Apple is working on two next-generation chips.”

There is no indication on what these two chipsets will be used in, but taking a guess, the A6 chip would feature on the iPad 3, while the A5X may feature in a newer version of the iPad 2. There could also be the launch of a smaller iPad that could feature the A5X chipset, as recent reports indicate that Apple may, in fact be working on a 7 or 8-inch iPad. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.