RumorTT: Apple iPad 3 to sport quad-core A6 chip, available in LTE

We started the day off with a RumorTT about the iPod Nano, and toward the end of the news posting day, another RumorTT is here, about the iPad 3. I did originally say that it was weird posting a RumorTT piece about an Apple product that wasn't an iPhone or iPad... but mere hours later, here we are.

A "source claiming to be in possession of an iPad 3 prototype" provided BGR with images that contained juicy details on Apple's next-generation iPad. From the above photo, which contains the output from an iPad 3 using a development and debug tool called iBoot, we can see tonnes of information on the iPad 3.

First, J1 and J2 (iPad3,1 and iPad3,2) are two different models, not different devices. A single iPad 3, available in Wi-Fi-only and another that sports GSM/CDMA/LTE for all carriers. Also spotted in the photo is the first news of the chip being slapped into the iPad 3: an A6 processor with the model number S5L8945X. To compare this to previous Apple chips, the Apple A4 model was S5L8930X and the Apple A5 is the S5L8940X.

The new A6 should be a quad-core device, making this one of the fastest tablets on the market, now able to compete with Tegra 3-equipped devices such as the ASUS Transformer Prime, and it will be the most powerful iOS-based device to-date.