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iPhone 5 gets more, faster memory, says report

Apple's next-generation smartphone appears to get a memory upgrade over the iPhone 4/4S.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
Brooke Crothers
Apple did not hide the markings on the A6 chip at the Wednesday event.  This gave chip sleuths a way to determine system memory capacity and speed -- so a chip review site claims.
Apple did not hide the markings on the A6 chip at the Wednesday event. This gave chip sleuths a way to determine system memory capacity and speed -- so a chip review site claims. James Martin/CNET

The iPhone 5 sports 1GB of system memory, twice the amount of the iPhone 4S, a chip review site claims.

And it's faster too, said Anandtech in a post on Saturday.

"Roughly 33 percent more peak memory bandwidth than the iPhone 4S, which can definitely help feed the faster [graphics processing unit] and drive the higher resolution display," Anandtech said.

So, how does Anandtech know this? Apple did not hide the markings (see image above) at the Wednesday event, which revealed a Samsung -- manufacturer of the A6 -- part number.

We'll know for sure that it's a 1GB part, or not, when somebody takes apart the iPhone 5 and looks at the chip markings in a shipping product. That said, these markings are essentially the same data that is revealed in a teardown.

The iPhone 5's memory speed falls between the iPhone 4/4S and the third-generation Retina iPad, according to Anandtech.
The iPhone 5's memory speed falls between the iPhone 4/4S and the third-generation Retina iPad, according to Anandtech. Anandtech