Although it seemed likely if not a forgone conclusion before these reports, the mothership is looking to hire an engineer with experience specific to a type of ARM processor that, if it found its way into an Apple handheld, would provide a significant boost, especially for graphics.

Quoting an Apple job posting, MacRumors reports that the mothership is seeking to hire a low-level iPhone programmer with ARM chip and NEON vector unit skills:

The successful candidate will have excellent understanding and knowledge of processor architecture, specifically ARM and its vector unit NEON. Additional Intel SSE or PowerPC AltiVec is also very helpful. Being able to use processor micro-architecture to write and deliver fast routines is an essential attribute.

Thereupon, NEON is an extended instruction, like Intel SSE or PowerPC AltiVec, that accelerates multimedia applications. The interesting bits here is that NEON is a marketing term associated with ARMv7 and that the iPhone currently uses ARMv6.

So, it would seem that Apple’s planning to upgrade the iPhone’s processor to the newer, better, faster version of the ARM processor that offers more powerful graphics processing. Further thereto, MacRumors informs that Cupertino is also seeking an individual with “cutting-edge embedded video processing” skills, which would seem to be the icing on the cake.

Really, given Apple’s game changing and, frankly, world beating approach to third-party mobile apps, and in particular games, a more powerful version of “more of the same” makes a lot of sense…

What’s your take?

Related:

Entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 9:56 pm under News, Unconfirmed, iPhone, iPod Touch.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Ronald O Carlson.
Stumble It!