iFixit paired up with ChipWorks to do a teardown of the custom, Apple-designed A6 processor (or SoC, to be more exact). Some pretty interesting stuff, but the manual placement of the ARM cores is pretty fascinating.
Quote:
Step 11- Journey to the center of the A6. The most prominent features inside are the Dual ARM cores, and the three PowerVR graphics cores.
- When compared to the rigid, efficient layout of the GPU cores directly below it, the layout of the ARM cores looks a little homespun—at first.
- Generally, logic blocks are automagically laid out with the use of advanced computer software. However, it looks like the ARM core blocks were laid out manually—as in, by hand.
- A manual layout will usually result in faster processing speeds, but it is much more expensive and time consuming.
- The manual layout of the ARM processors lends much credence to the rumor that Apple designed a custom processor of the same caliber as the all-new Cortex-A15, and it just might be the only manual layout in a chip to hit the market in several years.
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http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple...ardown/10528/1