Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Quad core CPUs use significantly more power. Apple have already increased the size (and weight) of the battery in order to maintain the same battery life that the iPad 2 has. A quad core CPU would mean either significantly more weight, or significantly shorter battery life in return for little gain for the typical user.
|
Wrong. Quad-core CPUs can use LESS power than dual-cores. The Tegra-3 (quad-core) uses less power than the Tegra-2 (dual-core).
It is a common misconception that more cores equals more power. For starters, technology advances (you move from 40nm to 32nm, to 22nm), each step bringing you improved power management. Then you have other advances, like the 5th companion core on the Tegra-3 which handles background stuff, using less power than any of the cores in the Tegra-2. Also, you have improved core management at the kernel level.
And, even if quad-cores use more power than a dual-core when at full throttle, they also accomplish the task in less time, so the amount of energy, everything else being equal, would be similar (energy being power times time).
Edit: add background info
Quote:
A common misconception is that a multi-core CPU consumes more power than a single core
CPU and causes significant reduction in battery life. On the contrary, due to variable symmetric
multiprocessing, the main quad core CPU architecture of Project Kal-El is more power efficient
and delivers higher performance per watt than competing single and dual core processors.
|
Quad-cores