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Apple could still be using the 32nm A5R2, but move back to a discrete audio cancellation chip leaving the Audience block unused. A little bit of a waste, but less so with the 32nm shrink. I guess Audience would still get paid since their IP has been integrated even it's unused.

Is there a way to add the 2012 iPad into the comparison to see if anything changed in the A5X?Reply

I don't read the announcement like it alludes to a new SOC in the next iPhone. What it reads like to me is: Apple bought new IP from this company and they are not going to include this Ip into the next iPhone because of lack of time to test.

This doesn't mean Apple is not using the the iPad 2 SOC on the new manufacturing process with AudienceEar's older IP from "previous generations". From what I have read here: the iPhone 4S uses the same SOC as the iPad 2 down-clocked. On the new process Apple could raise the clocks and still get power savings compared to the iPhone 4S. And market it as faster and more power efficient.

I would also argue that the AudienceEar IP (old) is active in iPad 2 and 3. Think about Facetime and cellular Facetime coming in iOS6. Facetime would benefit from this technology as well as video recording.Reply

Exactly what I think too. Based on "Audience is not aware of any intended changes by this OEM to its use of Audience's processors or processor IP in prior generations of the OEM's mobile phones." what was in previous mobile phones will be in upcoming phones.Reply

The old iPhone models mostly had a superior SoC to the ones found in Android smartphones. The GPU was much faster (only the latest Android smartphones can top the year old iPhone 4S GPU), the CPU was cutting edge at the time of its release.

The new iPhone 5 must survive another year. But this year is the year of the ARM A15 processors. If Apple uses old A9 SoCs for the iPhone 5 it won't be competive. I doubt that they release an iPhone 5S in four months with a A15 based SoC. Adding further cores or increasing clock speed to the existing SoC doesn't give that much perfomance improvement and might cause shorter battery life (the SoC in the new iPad gets hot already)

If the iPhone 5 doesn't use a new SoC based on A15 design, Apple will face a hard year. Because that means that SoCs used in Android smartphones will be noticeable faster than the ones used in the iPhone 5, both CPU and GPU. They will fall back in benchmark results by magnitudes. Game developers will switch to Android, the iPhone won't be the standard to which every new smartphone gets compared to, ...

Apple will sell a bajillion phones no matter what SoC is in it. I'll eat my hat if they have an A15 design ready to ship in volume this month.

The iPhone CPUs have always been competitive with what launched around them, but they've never held up the whole year. Apple stays competitive on performance by having a stronger GPU than their competition and a highly optimized OS designed solely for their hardware.Reply

You're forgetting it can go with something like the s4 pro. The new krait architecture is essentially @ what a15 levels are expected to be.Anyways, doesn't ti have the guarantee of being first out with the new architecture? Reply

That is not true. TI is said to be in front of most of the apps processor vendors in terms of licensed standard ARM A15 design. Qualcomm has it now but they are architecture licensee and doing their own design.Apple who is also licensed standard A15 core could have it out before others due to their in house use and limited validation criteria set. I don't want to be quoted but there were multiple tape out last year from rumors on the street. A new SOC on the phone is almost set in stone.Reply