What's inside the iPad 2?

SAN JOSE, Calif. - What's inside Apple Inc.'s iPad 2?

The iPad 2, Apple's next-generation tablet PC, will use ARM's ''Cortex-A9 dual core processor running at 1.2-GHz'' and Imagination’s SGX543 dual core graphics, according to the AppleInsider Web site, which cited Concord Securities as its source. Here's the specifications for the current iPad.

Like the current iPad, Apple will design the processor in the iPad 2. As before, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will make the chip on a foundry basis. 

Samsung will quadruple its shipments of the advanced mobile processor chips to Apple,according to the Korea Times.


Apple COO Tim Cook recently finished a quarterly earnings call in which he said Apple has struck long term supplier agreements worth $3.9 billion over two years.  Cook said it was similar to Apple's 2005 flash deal but would not say if it was in flash, DRAM, LCD or what.

According to another report from AppleInsider, the $3.9 billion deal is for displays.  

Worldwide tablet shipments this year are forecast to hit 57.6 million, up from 17.1 million in 2010, according to IHS iSuppli. 

Some 60 tablet PCs from various vendors were introduced at CES. But the rush to offer tablets that compete with Apple's iPad ''will cause disruptions in the global display industry this year, generating both shortages and excess inventories, as display makers attempt to satisfy booming demand from their tablet customers,'' according to IHS iSuppli.

''Although Apple will retain market dominance with 70.4 percent share of tablet shipments next year, the company will face mounting competition from new rivals producing consumption tablets, including Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Hewlett-Packard Co., Research in Motion Ltd., Dell Inc. and dozens of other companies,'' according to the firm.

DRAM shipments for tablets are expected to explode by a factor of more than nine this year, according to the firm. DRAM shipments this year for tablet devices are projected to reach 353.3 million gigabits (Gb), up 834.7 percent from a mere 37.8 million in 2010. Shipments of tablet DRAM—the main memory component in these devices—will continue to rise during the years to come, surging to 1.0 billion Gb in 2012, to 2.2 billion Gb in 2013 and to 3.5 billion Gb in 2014, according to the firm.

NAND flash memory is set to enjoy another year of double-digit percentage growth in 2011, according to IHS iSuppli. Coming off its biggest year yet in 2010 when the market climbed 38 percent, NAND flash revenue this year will reach $22.0 billion, up 18 percent from $18.7 billion. The rise in revenue will be accompanied by an even larger increase in NAND bit growth, projected to soar 72 percent in 2011 to 19.3 billion gigabytes.

“Buoyed by the success of Apple Inc.’s iPad, NAND flash will likely enjoy explosive growth in 2011 with the arrival of tablet products from other players such as Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Dell Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd.,” said Michael Yang, senior analyst for memory and storage at IHS, in a recent statement.