An annotated guide to iFixit's iPhone 4S tear-down Disassembly of Apple iPhone 4S bears chip, component details

• Published in: Network World (Online)
• Main Author: Cox, John
• Format: Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Southborough Foundry 14.10.2011
• ISSN: 1944-7655

Dual-core A5 processor: This has been talked about forever, of course. Based on the tear-down, AnandTech's Anand Lal Shimpi concludes that this processor "is virtually identical to what was used in the iPad 2 -- although running at a lower clock speed and likely a lower voltage as well." One feature that's surprised many, he notes, is that Apple still is using "only 512MB of RAM on the A5's PoP stack." But this indicates Apple's obsession with the "user experience." According to Shimpi, "since most apps not in use are kept out of memory to begin with, having more memory doesn't actually buy you a whole lot of performance." In addition, "there are also potential battery life concerns with larger DRAMs: more room for apps to remain resident in memory leaves more DRAM cells to refresh, which impacts power consumption (although eventually Apple will have to cross this bridge, likely with the next process node transition)," he says. "I suspect the biggest issue created by not outfitting the iPhone 4S with more DRAM is limiting game developers to smaller levels, fewer unique textures, etc. ..."