Citing a report in the New York Times, AppleInsider suggests that Apple's investment in the new A4 chip that powers the iPad was likely to have hit $1 billion--and that's without building a factory to manufacture the chips. Processors based on ARM technologyhave become ubiquitous in consumer electronics like smartphones and PDAs, but Apple's use of the architecture as the basis for their iPad indicates that while ARM chips may be low in power consumption, they aren't low in processing power.

ARM processors are generally greener than Intel's Atom chips, requiringless power and less money. Apple has long used ARM processors in iPods and iPhones, and created their new A4 chip as a customized 1GHz version of the Cortex-A9, integrating both the CPU and graphics processor on a single chip. The iPhone 3GS uses a 600MHz Cortex-A8, and has impressed many with its power. But clearly Apple sees even greater potential, betting as much as a billion dollars on the technology's ability to scale up and handle even more intense tasks. In fact, HP and Lenovo plan to incorporate ARM into new laptops.

Steve Jobs describes the A4 as “our most advanced chip we've ever done that powers the iPad. It's got the processor, the graphics, the I/O, the memory controller -- everything in this one chip, and it screams.” It's the A4's low power requirements that allow Apple to claim the iPad will have 10 hours of battery life with constant use, and weeks of standby power.