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Do you think the Apple A9 SoC have a Triple-Core CPU?
- Thread starter maclunian
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Agree. Android need to have quad-core processors with 2GHz and 2GB of memory for them to run fine on Android. Whereascan put half of all of those specs and run in the same way. People don't have a good time on their phone just because they have the knowledge that they have an octa-core processor.
YUP. Could someone with a good knowledge of computer science tell us in semi-technical terms why Android requires 3 GB of ram and 8 cores, etc to run smoothly? While an iphone 5 (now 3.5 years old) still runs just as fast as the latest Android flagships?
Specifically, how much of the blame can be put on java as the underlying language that Android runs on? My experiences with java are that it's just unbelievably slow. This extends down to Android studio a java ide, which is itself far, far slower than XCode to develop on.
Am I wrong in that Android is just throwing more horsepower to solve the speed problem rather than trying to actually improve efficient architecture?
I definitely agree. Manufacturers are throwing specs at their problems rather than attempting to fix them. Apple is guilty of the same. Look at how A7 iPads run iOS like total garbage, but the A8X is smooth as butter. Apple hasn't attempted to fix things for A7 iPads at all, they just threw monstrous specs at the latest iPad, and plan on keeping that way in order to avoid optimizing iOS for iPad.
No, A9 will be like a repackaged, more efficient A8X, I'm pretty sure. We have never had a new main iPhone processor that was weaker than the previous iPad processor. A6>A5X, A7>A6X, etc.
A9 will be a more efficient, smaller a8x. As for a A9X, who knows? Perhaps a Tri Core again with faster clock speeds(1.8ghz) Or maybe the first quad core iPad ever... I'm not really massively concerned about speed, but more so as TheLancer said, how efficient iOS is. Let's say the A9 is about 30% faster then the A8, coupled with a 30% faster iOS, now you get even more speed. Really hope iOS 9 or maybe 10 becomes much more efficient
While I would also like to know all about how Java is partially to blame, the current versions of Android don't use Java anymore. They are on ART (Android Runtime).
Also, a lot of the slowness comes down to skins and other software that is preloaded on most Android phones.
This is for the most part, factually incorrect.
Many Androids can run smoothly on an older chipset with 2GB RAM.
Look at the Moto or Nexus series phones.
Also you have to realize that Android is doing a lot more multitasking than iOS which is why more system resources are needed.
However I do agree that iOS is vastly more efficient due to the closed nature of the ecosystem.
Instill think you are wrong though. The a8x is a real powerhouse. The performance jump between the a8 and the a8x was bigger than the jump between a6 and a6x.
Don' t expect much more than a 25% increase of the a9 over the a8., or else you will be disappointed.
The a9x however will be faster than the a8x, and perhaps will be a quadcore.
Regular a9 will remain dual core with perhaps higher clockspeed on the 6s+ than the 6s.
But we' ll all see in the next 4 weeks.
While I agree that we've never had an iPhone CPU that was weaker than the previous iPad CPU, it is entirely possible that the A9's GPU will not be as powerful as the custom 8-core design from the A8X. For example, the A5X is around 25% more powerful than the A6 in terms of GPU (not counting the iPad 3's retina display disadvantage), and the A6X had a higher memory bandwidth than the A7 due to the 32-bit quad-channel technology versus the 64-bit single-channel technology from the A7.
I think we will see a PowerVR Series 7 GPU in the A9, but I'm expecting its performance to be somewhere in between the A8's and A8X's, since it probably won't have 8-cores (6 is more likely).