1GHz Apple A4 Processor, 256MB RAM Confirmed

The teardown of the second next generation iPhone prototype discovered in Vietnam had revealed the possibility of iPad’s A4 chip in the fourth generation iPhone.

Folks at iFixit have just sent us an email to confirm that the processor revealed in the photos of the next generation iPhone is Apple’s A4 processor. They have also confirmed that Apple’s new iPhone will come with 256MB RAM.

Folks at iFixit tell us that the part numbers of the processor revealed in the photos are legitimate. They explain:

The silkscreen on the production A4 reads:

APL0398 339S0084 YNL215X0 K4X2G643GE N26CGM0T

The leaked prototype has these markings:

APL0398 339S0084 YNE07423 K4X2G643GE GSA1400A

The two numbers that are different are likely manufacturing numbers (each lot of chips is stamped with a unique number to track them through the supply chain).

The important numbers are:

APL0398 339S0084 is the part number of Apple A4

K4X2G643GE is the part number for 256 MB Samsung DRAM (two dies)

Apple’s A4 chip is a 1GHz SoC while iPhone 3GS CPU runs at 600Mhz. However, it looks like the new iPhone will have the same amount of RAM available in iPhone 3GS and iPad.

Engadget also reports that this second iPhone 4G prototype is labeled as "N90 PRO2" while Gizmodo’s iPhone prototype was labeled “N90 DVT”. We know that “N90” is Apple’s codename for the fourth-generation GSM iPhone and “DVT” stands for “design verification test”, an Apple production milestone. MacRumors speculates that PRO could stand for prototype or production.

MacRumors has also published the translated impressions of the next iPhone prototype (originally written in Vietnamese), which is an interesting read:

iPhone 4G has a totally new design in comparing with previous generations of iPhone. Not only looking stronger (aluminum and glass) when holding in your hand, you will be surprise to think that it was put together by several separate parts because it feels like a solid block. Because of the square/block design, it feels a little uncomfortable in your hand in comparing with the previous generation of iPhone. You can feel the sharp edges come in contact with your hand.

There is no longer a metal bezel on the front, only a black surface. The back design is also the same, a single piece of glass convering all the Logo, camera, flash, and other information...look very classy. We can see that the front and back are pieces of glass that were attached to the aluminum frame. When looking at another angel, people will see that aluminum frame was brilliantly made; a lot of attention to the details, thing like speakers, earphone, mic.... Beside the only home button in the front, there is another small camera right on the left of the speaker, under the glass surface.

The 4 edges contain the same buttons with the same functions as the previous iPhones. The volume buttons are now separate and are round. Next to the headphone plug and power button, there a small hole, which looks like a mic's hole. It's possible that this is the noice canceling mic. The SIM card has been moved to the right side, like on the iPad.

Dimension: iPhone 4G is thinner than the previous iPhones (about 2.5mm), the width is also narrower, about 3.5mm (this is because of the aluminum frame), the height is about 1mm higher. These changes have made the new iPhone looks longer or higher.

When turning on the iPhone, only the inferno screen is showed and some information that look like command lines. Perhap this screen showed up not because of Apple remotely locked the machine but the phone is locked locally after a time interval without the user entering a certain code.

Let us know your thoughts on what could be Apple’s new iPhone in the comments.