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| 53.3 mm²
| 53.3 mm²
| [[ARM architecture|ARMv7]]
| [[ARM architecture|ARMv7]]
| 800–1000 MHz single-core [[ARM Cortex-A8]]
| 0.8-1.0 GHz single-core [[ARM Cortex-A8]]
| L1: 32 kB Instruction + 32 kB Data, L2: 512 kB
| L1: 32 kB Instruction + 32 kB Data, L2: 512 kB
| [[PowerVR]] SGX535
| [[PowerVR]] SGX535
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| 122.2 mm²
| 122.2 mm²
| [[ARM architecture|ARMv7]]
| [[ARM architecture|ARMv7]]
| 800–1000 MHz dual-core [[ARM Cortex-A9]]
| 0.8-1.0 GHz dual-core [[ARM Cortex-A9]]
| L1: 32 kB instruction + 32 kB data, L2: 1 MB
| L1: 32 kB instruction + 32 kB data, L2: 1 MB
| [[PowerVR]] SGX543MP2 (dual-core)
| [[PowerVR]] SGX543MP2 (dual-core)
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| 69.6 mm²
| 69.6 mm²
| [[ARM architecture|ARMv7]]
| [[ARM architecture|ARMv7]]
| 800–1000 MHz dual-core [[ARM Cortex-A9]] (''one core disabled in Apple TV'')
| 0.8-1.0 GHz dual-core [[ARM Cortex-A9]] (''one core disabled in Apple TV'')
| L1: 32 kB instruction + 32 kB data, L2: 1 MB
| L1: 32 kB instruction + 32 kB data, L2: 1 MB
| [[PowerVR]] SGX543MP2 (dual-core)
| [[PowerVR]] SGX543MP2 (dual-core)
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| 165 mm²<ref>http://www.anandtech.com/show/5685/apple-a5x-die-size-measured-16294mm2-likely-still-45nm</ref>
| 165 mm²<ref>http://www.anandtech.com/show/5685/apple-a5x-die-size-measured-16294mm2-likely-still-45nm</ref>
| [[ARM architecture|ARMv7]]
| [[ARM architecture|ARMv7]]
| 1 GHz dual-core [[ARM Cortex-A9]]
| 1.0 GHz dual-core [[ARM Cortex-A9]]
| L1: 32 kB instruction + 32 kB data, L2: 1 MB
| L1: 32 kB instruction + 32 kB data, L2: 1 MB
| [[PowerVR]] SGX543MP4 (quad-core)
| [[PowerVR]] SGX543MP4 (quad-core)

Revision as of 00:32, 19 July 2012

Ax is a series of ARM-based System on Chips (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. for use in their consumer electronic devices, such as the iPod, iPad, iPhone and Apple TV.

Apple A4

Main article: Apple A4
The Apple A4 SoC

The Apple A4 is a package on package (PoP) system-on-a-chip (SoC) designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung.[1] It combines an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU with a PowerVR GPU, and emphasizes power efficiency.[2] The chip commercially debuted with the release of Apple's iPad tablet;[3] followed shortly by the iPhone 4 smartphone,[4] the 4th generation iPod Touch and the 2nd generation Apple TV. It was superseded in the second-generation iPad, released the following year, by the Apple A5 processor.

Apple A4 is based on the ARM processor architecture.[5] The first version released ran at 1 GHz for the iPad and contains an ARM Cortex-A8 CPU core paired with a PowerVR SGX 535 graphics processor (GPU)[3][6][7][8] built on Samsung's 45-nanometer (nm) silicon chip fabrication process.[9] Clock speed for the units used in the iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and Apple TVs have not been revealed.

The Cortex-A8 core used in the A4 is thought to use performance enhancements developed by chip designer Intrinsity (which was subsequently acquired by Apple)[10] in collaboration with Samsung.[11] The resulting core, dubbed "Hummingbird", is able to run at far higher clock rates than other implementations while remaining fully compatible with the Cortex-A8 design provided by ARM.[12] Other performance improvements include additional L2 cache. The same Cortex-A8 CPU core used in the A4 is also used in Samsung's S5PC110A01 SoC.[13][14] The SGX535 in the A4 could push 35 million polygons/second and 500 million pixels/second, although in real world tests it struggled to pull off even 7 million flat shaded polygons. [15]

The A4 processor package does not contain RAM, but supports PoP installation. The top package of the A4 used in the iPad, in the iPod Touch[16] 4th gen and in the Apple TV[17] 2nd gen contains two low-power 128 MB DDR SDRAM chips for a total of 256MB RAM. For the iPhone 4 there are two chips of 256 MB for a total of 512 MB.[18][19][20] RAM is connected to the processor using ARM's 64-bit-wide AMBA 3 AXI bus. This is twice the width of the RAM data bus used in previous ARM 11 and ARM 9 based Apple devices, to support the greater need for graphics bandwidth in the iPad.[21]

Apple A5

Main article: Apple A5
The A5 – APL0498
The A5 – APL2498

The Apple A5 is a package on package (PoP) system-on-a-chip (SoC) designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung[22] that replaced the A4. The chip commercially debuted with the release of Apple's iPad 2 tablet in March 2011[23], followed by its release in the iPhone 4S smartphone later that year. (This is consistent with how Apple debuted the A4 chip: first in the original iPad, then in the iPhone 4, and finally in the 4th generation iPod touch.[24])

The A5 contains a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU[25] with ARM's advanced SIMD extension, marketed as NEON, and a dual core PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU. This GPU can push between 70 and 80 million polygons/second and has a pixel fill rate of 2 billion pixels/second. Apple lists the A5 to be clocked at 1 GHz on the iPad 2's technical specifications page,[26] though it can dynamically adjust its frequency to save battery life.[27][25]

Apple claims that the CPU is twice as powerful and the GPU up to nine times as powerful as its predecessor, the Apple A4. The A5 package contains 512 MB of low-power DDR2 RAM clocked at 533 MHz.[28][29][30][31] The A5 is estimated to cost 75% more than its predecessor; the price difference is supposed to diminish as production increases.[32]

The third generation Apple TV and the new version of iPad 2 (version iPad2,4) contains a 32 nm version of the A5 processor. The chip in the Apple TV has one core disabled.[33][34] The markings of the square package indicates that it's named APL2498, and in software, the chip is called S5L8942. The 32nm variant of the A5 provides around 15% better battery life during web browsing, 30% better when playing 3D games and approximately 20% better battery life during video playback.[35]

Apple A5X

The A5X – APL5498

Apple A5X was announced on March 7, 2012 at the launch of the iPad (3rd generation). This SoC has a quad-core graphics unit (PowerVR SGX543MP4) instead of the previous dual-core as well as a quad-channel memory controller that provides a memory bandwidth of 12.8 GB/sec, roughly 3 times more than in the A5. The added graphics cores and extra memory channels add up to a very large die size of 163 mm², for example twice the size of Nvidia Tegra 3.[36] This is mainly due to the large PowerVR SGX543MP4 GPU. The clock frequency of the dual ARM Cortex-A9 cores have been shown to operate at the same 1 GHz frequency as in A5.[37] The RAM in A5X is separate from the main CPU package.[38]

List of Apple SoCs

Name Model no. Semiconductor technology Die size CPU Instruction set CPU CPU cache GPU Memory technology Introduced Utilizing devices
A4 APL0398 45 nm
by Samsung 		53.3 mm² ARMv7 0.8-1.0 GHz single-core ARM Cortex-A8 L1: 32 kB Instruction + 32 kB Data, L2: 512 kB PowerVR SGX535 32-bit Dual-channel 200 MHz LPDDR March 2010
A5 APL0498 45 nm
by Samsung 		122.2 mm² ARMv7 0.8-1.0 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 L1: 32 kB instruction + 32 kB data, L2: 1 MB PowerVR SGX543MP2 (dual-core) 32-bit Dual-channel 266 MHz LPDDR2 March 2011
APL2498 32 nm HKMG
by Samsung 		69.6 mm² ARMv7 0.8-1.0 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 (one core disabled in Apple TV) L1: 32 kB instruction + 32 kB data, L2: 1 MB PowerVR SGX543MP2 (dual-core) 32-bit Dual-channel 266 MHz LPDDR2 March 2012
A5X APL5498 45 nm
by Samsung 		165 mm²[39] ARMv7 1.0 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 L1: 32 kB instruction + 32 kB data, L2: 1 MB PowerVR SGX543MP4 (quad-core) 32-bit Quad-channel 400 MHz LPDDR2[40] March 2012

Similar platforms

See also

References

  1. ^ Clark, Don (2010-04-05). "Apple iPad Taps Familiar Component Suppliers - WSJ.com". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2010-04-15.
  2. ^ "iPad - It's thin, light, powerful, and revolutionary". Apple. Archived from the original on 6 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ a b "Apple Launches iPad" (Press release). Apple. 2010-01-27. Archived from the original on 30 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-28. {{cite press release}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "iPhone 4 design". Apple. 2010-07-06.
  5. ^ Vance, Ashlee (2010-02-21). "For Chip Makers, the Next Battle Is in Smartphones". New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-25. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Wiens, Kyle (2010-04-05). "conclusion from both hard and software analysis it uses an ARM Cortex-A8 core". Ifixit.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "iPad — Technical specifications and accessories for iPad". Apple. Archived from the original on 30 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-28. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Melanson, Donald (2010-02-23). "iPad confirmed to use PowerVR SGX graphics". Engadget.
  9. ^ "Chipworks Confirms Apple A4 iPad chip is fabbed by Samsung in their 45-nm process". Chipworks.
  10. ^ Stokes, Jon (2010-04-28). "Apple purchase of Intrinsity confirmed". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 28 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-28. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Merritt, Rick. "Samsung, Intrinsity pump ARM to GHz rate". EETimes.com. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
  12. ^ Keizer, Gregg (2010-04-06). "Apple iPad smokes past the iPhone 3GS in speed". PC World. Archived from the original on 20 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-11. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ Boldt, Paul; Scansen, Don; Whibley, Tim (16 June 2010). "Apple's A4 dissected, discussed...and tantalizing". EETimes.com. Retrieved 2010-07-07.
  14. ^ "Microsoft PowerPoint - Apple A4 vs SEC S5PC110A01" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ "Apple iPad 2 GPU Performance Explored: PowerVR SGX543MP2 Benchmarked - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News". AnandTech. Archived from the original on 18 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "Teardown of Apple's 4th-gen iPod touch finds 256MB of RAM". Appleinsider.com. 2010-09-08. Archived from the original on 11 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ "Apple TV 2nd Generation Teardown". iFixit. 2010-09-30. Archived from the original on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-04. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ "Apple reveals iPhone 4 has 512MB RAM, doubling iPad - report". Appleinsider.com. 2010-06-17. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ "A Peek Inside Apple's A4 Processor". iFixit. 2010-04-05.
  20. ^ Greenberg, Marc (2010-04-09). "Apple iPad: no LPDDR2?". Denali.
  21. ^ Merritt, Rick (2010-04-09). "iPad equipped to deliver richer graphics". EE Times Asia. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
  22. ^ "Updated: Samsung fabs Apple A5 processor". EETimes.com. March 12, 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-15.
  23. ^ "Apple Announces iPad 2 with New Design, Faster A5 Processor".
  24. ^ "iPhone 5 expected to have same A5 chip as iPad 2". Macworld.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  25. ^ a b "Apple iPad 2 Preview - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News". AnandTech. Retrieved 2011-03-15.
  26. ^ "iPad - View the technical specifications for iPad". Apple. Archived from the original on 16 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ "Inside Apple's iPad 2 A5: fast LPDDR2 RAM, costs 66% more than Tegra 2". AppleInsider. Retrieved 2011-03-15.
  28. ^ "Apple iPad 2 feature page". Apple.com. Archived from the original on 16 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  29. ^ "Apple's A5 CPU in iPad 2 has 512MB of RAM, same as iPhone 4". Appleinsider.com. 2011-03-03. Retrieved 2011-03-15.
  30. ^ "TiPb Answers: Apple A5 chip — what we know and what we guess". Tipb.com. 2011-03-03. Retrieved 2011-03-15.
  31. ^ "The iPad 2 – Daring Fireball". Daringfireball.net. 2011-03-09. Archived from the original on 10 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  32. ^ Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry (14 March 2011). "It Costs $326.60 To Make An iPad 2 — Why That Matters". Business Insider, Inc. Retrieved March 14, 2011.
  33. ^ Single-core A5 CPU in new 1080p Apple TV doubles RAM to 512MB
  34. ^ "Update – 32-nm Apple A5 in the Apple TV 3 – and an iPad 2!". http://www.chipworks.com. Chipworks. 2012-04-11. Retrieved 2012-04-12. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  35. ^ http://www.anandtech.com/show/5789/the-ipad-24-review-32nm-a5-tested/2
  36. ^ http://www.anandtech.com/show/5685/apple-a5x-die-size-measured-16294mm2-likely-still-45nm
  37. ^ http://www.anandtech.com/show/5670/the-frequency-of-apple-a5x-in-the-new-ipad-confirmed-still-running-at-1ghz
  38. ^ "iFixit teardown of the 3rd generation iPad". iFixit.
  39. ^ http://www.anandtech.com/show/5685/apple-a5x-die-size-measured-16294mm2-likely-still-45nm
  40. ^ http://www.anandtech.com/show/5688/apple-ipad-2012-review/12
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