Doug S (foo.delete@this.bar.bar) on December 2, 2014 10:30 pm wrote:
> Maynard Handley (name99.delete@this.name99.org) on December 2, 2014 7:33 pm wrote:
> > dmcq (dmcq.delete@this.fano.co.uk) on December 2, 2014 5:32 pm wrote:
> > > It seems ARM have decided that atomic operations are a good idea
> > >
> > > http://community.arm.com/groups/processors/blog/2014/12/02/the-armv8-a-architecture-and-its-ongoing-development
> > >
> > > they are sticking a whole load of atomic operations into their 64 bit ARM architecture as
> > > well as the current acquire and release and memory exclusive ones. I'd guess so the operation
> > > can be exported to the cache or whereever and done there quickly but it is interesting that
> > > they think it worthwhile to implement these as well as all the other special memory operations
> > > they have. They will now have a quite amazing range of memory access operations.
> > >
> > > The link also describes a number of other additions they are making, they seem to be targetting
> > > large systems. Still no transactional memory or decimal floating point like POWER yet though ;-)
> >
> > Hmm. Interesting in light of the rumors (RUMORS!) that the mythical large screen iPad is
> > due in about six months and with an A9 (rather than the expected A8X) SoC. That certainly
> > gives one (admittedly not overwhelming) reason why Apple might want to rush forward with
> > a new core faster than expected, and perhaps why the A8 was so much just a tweaked A7.
>
>
> I think you're really reaching here. There have been rumors about a big iPad for over two years, and
> it still hasn't materialized. I think the initial rumors were unfounded and now it has taken on a life
> of its own as analysts randomly make stuff up hoping they'll get lucky and people will think they're
> geniuses. There won't be a big iPad in six months, but I'm sure we'll be treated to another rumor about
> how it will be announced in the fall, and when that doesn't happen, just after Christmas...
>
> In order to have shipping silicon in six months at the quantities a new model of iPad would require, Apple
> would have to have production ready masks today. That means they'd have to been developing v8.1 with ARM
> and friends, while simultaneously designing and debugging the A9. Not sure that's even possible. After all,
> people were amazed at how quickly Apple delivered the A7, but it was 23 months after ARM announced the ARMv8
> architecture! Granted, this isn't a whole new architecture, but six months is a lot less than 23.
>
> If they were doing a bigger iPad, I imagine it would be targeted at the enterprise
> market via the new IBM partnership. Can't see Apple being that aggressive and
> risking damage to their enterprise cred before it even gets off the ground.

I can't see anything that would be of any great use to Apple, certainly not for iPads. The 'limited order support' facility sounds like it might be useful for HSA but no real details are given. It really sounds more like the stuff people might be interested in if they have a very large number of processors working together. ARM has probably been discussing this with partners for more than a year and they say first silicon would be at the end of 2015.