The new iPad 4G contains Qualcomm's MDM9x00 Baseband
by Brian Klug on March 8, 2012 1:08 AM ESTA while back we speculated that Apple would use Qualcomm's 28nm MDM9615 basband for future iDevices with 4G LTE. The part made logical sense at the time, in part because of its 28nm process and compatibility with all the relevant air interfaces. Now that the restore .ipsw images have been posted and are available for download, I took a peek inside and did a little bit of forensics. It turns out that Apple has gone with Qualcomm's MDM9600, and has given the device codename Maverick (as opposed to Trek for MDM6610). This part still contains UE Category 3 LTE, CDMA2000 1x/EVDO Rev.A (and B), GSM/EDGE, and WCDMA/HSPA+ all the way through DC-HSPA+ 42 Mbps. It's a 45nm 13x13mm part we've seen in numerous other 4G LTE devices thus far.
You can see in the gallery above (or examine yourself by extracting and using your favorite hex editor) that there are numerous 9x00 and 9600 references in the build path throughout all the relevant .mbn files. As a reminder, AMSS.mbn corresponds to Qualcomm's Advanced Mobile Subscriber Software, which is exactly where you'd expect to see such references. The baseband given is MDM9x00 to be specific, though again MDM9200 and MDM9600 differ only in whether CDMA2000 1x/EVDO is enabled. I wager we'll see the AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and the international model using the same baseband but ship with different modules with different sets of power amplifiers.
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GTDued - Thursday, March 8, 2012 - link
That's because T-Mobile won't guarantee billions of dollars to Apple to have the privilege of selling the iPhone and iPad.tpurves - Thursday, March 8, 2012 - link
Sigh. America is the only country in North America is it? Canada has several carriers with 42mbps HSPA+ and also AWS spectrum, 3 of whom (Rogers, Bell, Telus) sell the iPad and iPhone already.I don't know what HSPA or spectrum flavors that Mexican carriers are using.
8steve8 - Thursday, March 8, 2012 - link
another tablet with a 40-45nm a9ish SoC, what a shame... screen looks nice though.that asus transformer pad infinity LTE with the 28nm SoC looks nice on paper, too bad the gpu on the first gen krait is fairly weak, where is samsung (or anyone) with their 32/28nm A15 hi-res tablet?
kyuu - Thursday, March 8, 2012 - link
Fairly weak? With it's high clock speed the Krait's GPU is still a damn good performer. Obviously the Pro variant with the Adreno 320 will be even better, but the non-Pro's GPU is still far from weak, I'd say.8steve8 - Thursday, March 8, 2012 - link
yeah the pro should be good, gpu wise but it's a ways offbut yes this current krait's GPU is far less impressive then its CPU performance.
looks like this a5x will be the opposite. unimpressive CPU, with a possibly great GPU... at 45nm i'll pass.
dubthedankest - Thursday, March 8, 2012 - link
Hey Brian,I was hoping you could advise on whether you expect the VZW iPad to be SIM locked to other US carriers or if one could insert an AT&T SIM into the VZW model to take advantage of AT&T 3G speeds when VZW 4G isn't available but then swap the VZW SIM back in when within VZW 4G coverage.
Thanks a ton.
secretmanofagent - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - link
I seem to remember reading that it was specific to each carrier during the announcement, even for LTE.bnowrooz - Friday, March 9, 2012 - link
Sorry, not trying to be whatever, curious but why are you looking at the MSM? Are you looking for something specific? The 96xx series has some compelling features but I don't see any comments on them? :)
I made a few comments in my posts: sonlte.com , specifically:
http://www.sonlte.com/2012/03/08/more-digging-on-t...
If you have any questions about the QCOM product line, I can try to help answer them. It's a little difficult doing the NDA/no NDA dance but I will try my best.
Thanks!