iPad 5 and iPad mini 2: A7 chip in trouble?

Apple poached chip designer Raja Korudi from AMD in 2009 to help wean the company off of its dependence on... well, AMD, as well as others like Intel. Now, Korudi has left Apple, where he was rumored to be working on the fabled A7 chip, and gone back to his old digs at AMD.

The iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 are likely to receive Apple's new A7 chip, or whatever it will be called by the time it's actually released. The departure of Korudi should trouble many Apple fanboys and girls not just for the implications posed for the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2, but because of what we know about Korudi's work at Apple, or at least what we've been able to infer.

Korudi's been designing chips for Apple since the very first A4 chip, well before any iPad 5 or iPad mini 2 rumors even existed. In fact, he was reportedly hired right around the time development began on the A4. It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that Korudi was the principal force responsible for the creation of the A4 chip. Likewise, it's not unreasonable to assume that Korudi played a crucial role in the design of the A7 chip, which probably exists, though we have no clue if it was completed prior to Korudi's departure.

What does this mean for iPad 5 and iPad mini 2? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. Perhaps Korudi left because he'd completed work on the A7 chip. Or maybe he left Apple, as well as the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 totally in the lurch. Maybe no A7 chip exists at all. Only time and earnings reports will tell.