The most interesting point I've seen made is the question of what does the new Apple A4 CPU bring to the table? Oh, you didn't notice that Apple is building it's own CPU for the iPad?
For the consumer's benefit, I expect that it will be the most power stingy CPU that has ever been seen in an Apple product, cycles per milliwatt it may beat everything else. That's what PA Semi was building for the defense marketplace when Apple bought them. So I just googled and found a chip commentator who predicted it would be the best power/watt, power/dollar, and power/cubic-mm system on a chip ever built. But for Steve Job's peace of mind, wanna bet it incorporates a silicon lock down which will require delaminating the chip packaging and applying an electron microscope to jail break? It will not run anything that Apple has not approved. The consumer experience will not exceed Apple's expectations, except when they're fooled, and they'll probably have the backdoors necessary to fix those problems, too. -- rec --
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org