Quad-core chipsets confirmed for iPad 3 and iPhone 5?

Apple’s iPad 3 and iPhone 5 will use quad-core chipsets, a  leaked document has revealed.

The news comes via 9to5Mac, which reports that ‘hidden deep inside the latest iOS 5.1 beta is updated processing-core management software that not only supports the dual-core processing enabled by the A5 iPhone and iPad chip, but also quad-core processing.’

It added: ‘the updated core management software includes an option of “/cores/core.3,” and this represents a fourth available processing core.’

According to 9to5Mac’s source, the ‘core.3’ indicates that there will be four cores in the chipsets used by Apple’s next-generation devices, otherwise known as the iPhone 5 and iPad 3.

The report detailed that Apple’s A5 chipset devices – that’s the one found in the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S – had similar notations in the software code, which read ‘core.1’ – sounds pretty convincing to us. But all this isn’t that surprising, really. Apple will have to come to the table with quad-core devices next year just to keep up with current market trends.

Having said that, we’d take a dual-core iPhone 4S over a quad-core Android handset any day of the week. There’s only so much additional cores can do in terms of performance – software optimisation is also key and Google is way behind Apple in this respect.

Still though, interesting news all the same.