With the announcement of iPhone OS 4 wrapped, Apple revealed that the iPhone 3GS model will be the only iPhone to receive the multitasking love enshrined within. Steve Jobs said iPhone 2G and 3G were not physically capable of handling the multitasking experience: it wasn’t a decision, it was a limitation of the hardware. The older models will, however, presumably receive the rest of what OS 4 has to offer; multitasking was the only portion that was specifically called out as unavailable to other users. iPad Touch third generation will also receive the full OS 4 treatment; the 2nd gen Touch will lack multitasking as well.
As for what gives the 3GS and third-gen Touch the oomph needed to support the new hotness, the processor and the RAM are the two most likely culprits. The 2G and 3G iPhones run an ARM11-based CPU clocked at 412MHz with 128MB of DDR memory in their SoC (system on a chip). The 3GS, on the other hand, runs a 2-issue ARM Cortex A8-based CPU at 600MHz with double the memory, 256MB. The A8 also adds an L2 cache, something the ARM11 missed.
At the end of the day, that’s really all there is to it: she needs more power, captain. For those on the short end of the stick, might we suggest waiting for the next model? Even the 3GS is looking long in the tooth compared to Apple’s refresh cycle…
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