iPhone 5 Could Have a Quad-Core Processor

Buried deep in the latest beta of iOS 5.1 is code that strongly suggests Apple is getting ready to release smartphones and tablets with quad-core processors. This would significantly increase the power of the next iPhone and iPad.

Apple's current A5 chip has two processor cores, but competition is going to face the company to go beyond that -- the first phones running the rival Android OS with quad-core processors are expected to be unveiled this quarter.

The beta of iOS 5.1 reportedly shows that Apple is getting ready for this change. Its software for managing its processor has a reference to "/cores/core.3". A device with a single core would be ""/cores/core.0", while a dual-core chip would use ""/cores/core.1". A triple-core model would use "/cores/core.2" while a quad-core device would need "/cores/core.3".

There's nothing to reveal what the speed of the cores will be, however. The A5 chip has two 1GHz cores, and it's possible the A6 will double the number of cores, but stay at 1GHz. 

Coming Soon?
If Apple is already adding support for quad-core processors to iOS 5.1, this suggests that the first mobile product from this company to sport one could be the iPad 3. This tablet is widely expected to launch in the next few months.

The launch date for the next iPhone is still an open question. It could be this summer, or perhaps in the fall. Whenever it happens, this smartphone will apparently have a very powerful chip at its heart.

Source