Apple are advertising for a low level iPhone programmer with aptitude in ARM processors and NEON vector units. The job listing suggests that the next-gen iPhone will use an ARMv7 Cortex processor rather than the ARMv6 processor as in the iPhone 3G and iPod touch, as NEON is the extended multimedia acceleration instruction set associated with the newer, faster CPU.
That would certainly fit with the most recent specification tips for the upcoming third-generation smartphone, which predict that the iPhone will have double the processing power of the current model, together with video recording and editing capabilities. NEON would certainly allow the new phone to take advantage of the ARMv7 Cortex’s increased multimedia prowess.
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