The new iPad hits stores today. It’s at the end of the quickest announcement-to-release cycle Apple’s ever managed, but even so, it might not be all that sprightly. Ever wondered exactly how long your new iPad’s been in existence?
iFixIt hasn’t wasted a single nanosecond on this. They flew to Australia in a time traveling bid to beat the rest of the world to new iPad availability, before promptly ripping it to shreds. What gems did they uncover?
Pretty much what you’d expect. The logic board, a wall of batteries, etc, etc. But there was one detail that we thought you might be interested to know: the date on the Australian new iPad’s A5X processor.
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Much like how a bottle of Budweiser tells you the day it was born, Apple prints the A5X chip’s date of creation onto each one. Apparently this one was built in ‘the first week of 2012’.
In tech terms, that’s pretty old. They must’ve finished designing and testing the dual-core A5X chip back in early December, taking into account Christmas and New Year shutdowns, which means that the parts in the iPad are around four months old by the time they get into your hands.
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Given that we’re expecting an iPad 4 in 11 months or so, that processor is a third of the way through its expected lifetime before you ever make it do anything. And that’s if you get one now, let alone after a three-week wait.
Surprised at your iPad’s aged architecture? Let us know your thoughts below.
