Images of the iPad 3 motherboard reveal an improved A5 processor rather than the expected A6 that was often quoted by most tech analysts. The iPad 3 motherboard is a gigantic chip labelled A5X, a sort of successor to A5 that’s currently inside the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. The technical model number of the chip is S5L8945X.

All of Apple’s chips thus far have been built on a 45 nanometre process. Apple has therefore made the A5 chip for iPad 3 smaller by using a 32 nanometre process rather than designing a whole new motherboard. Just take a look at Samsung’s Exynos 4212, announced back in September of last year.

It’s the same situation with Exynos inside Samsung Galaxy S II, and built on a 32 nanometer process, with twice the speed and an improved GPU.

Apple iPad 3 confirmed specs now include retina display, 8 megapixel camera, and now the A5 processor.

The much hyped Near Field Communication (NFC) feature is not yet confirmed as an integral part of the new iPad. At least not yet.