More iPad HD rumours surface ahead of today’s announcement

The day is finally here and in just a few short hours Apple is expected to take the wraps off of the third generation iPad which is believed to go by the name iPad HD. Over the past couple of weeks there have been many debates surfacing as to what SoC (system on a chip) will be featured in the upcoming iPad. Reports are cancelling each other out with some citing that the iPad HD aka iPad 3 will feature a quad-core A6 chip while others claiming that the tablet will come packed with a dual-core A5X chipset. A day before the announcement, a report by The Verge states that sources have informed them that the tablet will in fact come with a dual-core A5X chip and not the quad-core A6 SoC which was initially expected to feature in the upcoming tablet.

No quad-core A6 chipset?

Apple is also believed to be introducing an updated version of their Apple TV model (not to be confused with the rumoured and expected Apple television set) which will unveiled with 1080p capabilities. The report states, “According to sources familiar with the matter, Apple will update both the new Apple TV and the iPad 3 (or iPad HD, a name we first unearthed last year) not with the rumored, quad-core A6 system-on-a-chip, but rather the A5X, a dual-core SoC said to have a more powerful GPU. From what we’re hearing, it’s basically an A5 on steroids. Our source was adamant that neither of the new products would be receiving the next generation chip — rather, that Apple seems to be waiting for the launch of the iPhone 5 to introduce the rumored A6.”

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The report also goes on to state, “There’s no question the new iPad will tout that 2048 x 1536 Retina Display, but we’re also told that along with the A5X, the device will have more RAM than its predecessor, and come in a variety of LTE flavors. There have been rumors flying that the iPad 3 would be LTE capable, and we’re told that it will definitely be announced for both the Verizon and AT&T networks tomorrow. To be clear, that would mean two distinct, separate versions of the LTE tablet (one for each network). In addition, there’s a third international model which does double duty on 3G; a CDMA / GSM model using a similar radio chipset to the iPhone 4S (a Qualcomm Gobi chip)."

A report by Chronicwire states that the iPad HD will feature more RAM as compared to the present generation iPad 2 with it coming with 1GB instead of 512MB found on the iPad 2.

Let us know what you think will be featured in the iPad HD ahead of its launch later on today.