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Apple A8

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Apple A8
Apple A8 processor
General information
LaunchedSeptember 9, 2014
DiscontinuedPresent
Designed byApple Inc.
Common manufacturer
Product codeAPL1011[2]
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate1.1 GHz (iPod Touch (6th generation))  to 1.4 GHz (iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus) and 1.5 GHz (iPad mini 4 & Apple TV (4th Gen))[3] 
Cache
L1 cachePer core: 64 KB instruction + 64 KB data[4]
L2 cache1 MB shared[4]
L3 cache4 MB[4]
Architecture and classification
ApplicationMobile
Technology node20 nm[5]
MicroarchitectureTyphoon[6][7]
Instruction setARMv8-A: [4]A64, A32, T32
Physical specifications
Transistors
  • 2 billion
Cores
GPUCustom PowerVR Series 6XT (quad-core)[9][10]
Products, models, variants
Variant
History
PredecessorApple A7
SuccessorApple A9

The Apple A8 is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. It first appeared in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which were introduced on September 9, 2014.[11] Apple states that it has 25% more CPU performance and 50% more graphics performance while drawing only 50% of the power of its predecessor, the Apple A7. The latest software updates for the 1.1GHz and 1.4GHz variants systems using this chip are iOS 12.5.5, released on September 23, 2021 as they were discontinued with the release of iOS 13 in 2019,[12] and 1.5GHz variant for the iPad Mini 4 is iPadOS 15.6 with the release of iPadOS 16 in 2022, while updates for the 1.5GHz variant continue for Apple TV HD.

Patent litigation

The A8's branch predictor has been claimed to infringe on a 1998 patent.[13][14] On October 14, 2015, a district judge found Apple guilty of infringing U.S. patent US 5781752 , "Table based data speculation circuit for parallel processing computer", on the Apple A7 and A8 processors.[14] The patent is owned by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), a firm affiliated with the University of Wisconsin. On July 24, 2017, Apple was ordered to pay WARF $506 million for patent infringement. Apple filed an appellate brief on October 26, 2017, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, that argued that Apple did not infringe on the patent owned by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.[15] On September 28, 2018, the ruling was overturned on appeal and the award thrown out by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.[16] The patent expired in December 2016.[17]

Products that include the Apple A8

A8 SoC on iPhone 6 main logic board.


See also

Notes

  1. ^ Most analysts have reported that the Apple A8 is manufactured by TSMC, including Chipworks,[1] Techinsights,[18] and AnandTech.[19] An analyst at IHS reports that manufacturing is split, with TSMC manufacturing about 60 percent and Samsung manufacturing about 40 percent.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b "Inside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus". Chipworks. September 19, 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-09-24. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
  2. ^ "iPhone 6 Plus Teardown". iFixit. September 18, 2014. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  3. ^ "iPad Mini 4 performance preview: A 1.5GHz Apple A8 with 2GB of RAM". Ars Technica. September 15, 2015. Retrieved September 16, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d "The iPhone 6 Review: A8's CPU: What Comes After Cyclone?". AnandTech. September 30, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference AnandTech-Apple-Announces-A8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ The Samsung Exynos 7420 Deep Dive - Inside A Modern 14nm SoC
  7. ^ Chester, Brandon (July 15, 2015). "Apple Refreshes The iPod Touch With A8 SoC And New Cameras". Retrieved September 11, 2015.
  8. ^ Anthony, Sebastian. "Apple's A8 SoC analyzed: The iPhone 6 chip is a 2-billion-transistor 20nm monster". www.extremetech.com. ExtremeTech. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  9. ^ Smith, Ryan (September 23, 2014). "Chipworks Disassembles Apple's A8 SoC: GX6450, 4MB L3 Cache & More". AnandTech. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  10. ^ Kanter, David. "A Look Inside Apple's Custom GPU for the iPhone". Retrieved 2019-08-27.
  11. ^ "Apple Announces iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus—The Biggest Advancements in iPhone History" (Press release). Apple. September 9, 2014. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  12. ^ Savov, Vlad (September 9, 2014). "iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have a new faster A8 processor". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  13. ^ Chirgwin, Richard (February 4, 2014). "Cupertino copied processor pipelining claims Wisconsin U". www.theregister.co.uk. The Register. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
  14. ^ a b Joe Mullin (October 14, 2015). "Apple faces $862M patent damage claim from University of Wisconsin". Ars Technica. Retrieved October 14, 2015.
  15. ^ Wolfe, Jan (October 26, 2017). "Apple urges appeals court to toss $506 million patent loss to WARF". Reuters. Retrieved February 22, 2018.
  16. ^ Stempel, Jonathan (September 28, 2018). "Apple wins reversal in University of Wisconsin patent lawsuit". Reuters. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
  17. ^ Wolfe, Jan (July 25, 2017). "Apple ordered to pay $506 million to university in patent dispute". Reuters. Retrieved July 26, 2017.
  18. ^ "Logic Detailed Structural Analysis of the 20 nm Node, TSMC Fabricated Apple A8 APL1011". Techinsights. August 28, 2015. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  19. ^ Ho, Joshua (November 2, 2015). "The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review: Analyzing Apple A9's SoC". AnandTech. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  20. ^ Hesseldahl, Arik (September 23, 2014). "Teardown Shows Apple's iPhone 6 Cost at Least $200 to Build". Re/code. Retrieved December 1, 2015.
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