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iPhone memory in iPad?

mikethebigo

mikethebigo

macrumors 68020
Original poster
May 25, 2009
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So here's a funny thought I just had. iPhone 4 comes with the A4 processor and 512 MB RAM, right? What would happen if you disassembled an iPhone 4, took the 2 256 MB memory modules out, and swapped them into the A4 SOC on the iPad? Would you then get a functional 512 MB RAM in the iPad?

I think someone rich should do it.
 
mikethebigo said:
So here's a funny thought I just had. iPhone 4 comes with the A4 processor and 512 MB RAM, right? What would happen if you disassembled an iPhone 4, took the 2 256 MB memory modules out, and swapped them into the A4 SOC on the iPad? Would you then get a functional 512 MB RAM in the iPad?

I think someone rich should do it.
Click to expand...

Yeah go ahead.
 
To entertain the OP's thoughts, he should read this article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10107580-1.html

If I remember correctly, the RAM is on the same chip as the CPU. So someone would need to swap the two A4's. You'd get more RAM, hypothetically but it's likely the processor speed would be slower than the iPad's.
 
In the old days, I hacked memory onto devices all the time. Including VMEBus cards. Even designed and added coprocessors to share the bus without the original CPU knowing about it.

In this case, you could easily wire up extra memory to the address and data buses (I'd probably pick them off near the Flash memory) and tell the OS where it is. (I'm not familiar enough with iOS guts to know details on how you do this... or even if you have to, since some OS's search all space... but I bet the guys who create unlocking code would.)
 
kdarling said:
In the old days, I hacked memory onto devices all the time. Including VMEBus cards. Even designed and added coprocessors to share the bus without the original CPU knowing about it.

In this case, you could easily wire up extra memory to the address and data buses (I'd probably pick them off near the Flash memory) and tell the OS where it is. (I'm not familiar enough with iOS guts to know details on how you do this... or even if you have to, since some OS's search all space... but I bet the guys who create unlocking code would.)
Click to expand...

Except for two things: hacking memory chips onto computers from nearly 30 years ago is significantly different that today. Second of all the A4 is a package on package. The ram is built into the chip. You're not going to be tapping any memory buses or adding ram to an idevice ever.
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple-A4-Teardown/2204/1
 
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