Apple's Next-Generation A8 Chip Said to Top 2 GHz, Remain Dual-Core

[firewood]

I'm fairly perplexed by people that say A7 is fast enough.

Processor too slow? That's true no matter how fast any processor is.

An A7 is faster than a supercomputer that people were willing to pay over a million bucks less than a couple decades ago. Give people something over 100X faster than a loaded Mac Pro a decade or two from now, and there will be people saying it's too dog slow for any of their stuff. The kids will wonder how you could possibly do anything with your current stone tools.

Same old. Same old.

 

[pohl]

Even if you don't feel the need for more speed, you are benefiting from a faster processor.

There is a concept called "race to sleep", where a faster processor can have the effect of making your device – counterintuitively, I agree – more power efficient. So even if software doesn't commonly utilize the horsepower of the A7, all software is still taking advantage of the A7's greater performance: by finishing tasks sooner so that the device can go into a low-power state, giving you better battery life.

A faster A8 should have the same effect. Sure, Apple may take that power savings and make the device thinner and lighter, giving you the same duration of use on a charge – but either way you'll benefit.

 

[yellowtruck]

There have only been such huge leaps because ARM was at a low point. It's easier to double a lower number than a higher number.”

That’s silly; the point is not the ARM’s low starting point. It's the rate of growth; advancement over short time and the projection forward..

 

[MacBH928]

I think the iPad will never reach desktop software level (not designed or inteded for it to be so) . It already does what its supposed to do very well. We need it to be snappier with more RAM. I believe multi-tasking is where it is next.

Thats what I heard is needed for multitasking. Watching Youtube and browsing will be great.

Any one knows why Apple upgraded about everything in the iPhone/iPad (including retine displays) but refuse to upgrade the RAM?

 

[firewood]

I think the iPad will never reach desktop software level (not designed or inteded for it to be so) .

Desktop level? What's that? The iPad Mini has already passed the performance level of a PowerMac G5 "super-computer" on a desktop. Some of the posters here were screaming with desire for an Apple G5 laptop... Now they can buy something faster, lighter, and a whole bunch cheaper as well.

And I expect an A8 will probably beat that performance by a nice percentage.

Oh... compared to todays laptop? More compute power (at the same tech generation) requires a bigger heat sink. No getting around the laws of physics. An no one wants an iPad with a big chunky heat sink. So yes, an iPad-like mobile will always be slower than a water-cooled over-clocked gamer desk boxen of the same generation. But probably more useful to lots of people.

But the whiners will always be unhappy. Why no 8000node Intel i9876 with a 200" display on their dog collar????!

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Any one knows why Apple upgraded about everything in the iPhone/iPad (including retine displays) but refuse to upgrade the RAM?

Aside from cost; the RAM in a iPhone is stacked on top of the processor. So more RAM would make the device thicker and less reliable, as well as the DRAM refresh eating into standby battery life.

 

[iabacus]

I will be finally upgrading my original iPad this fall (almost useless for web surfing as it crashes constantly). People have been complaining about safari reloading even on the newest ipad air.

I don't care if the new processor is lighting fast. I'm hoping for more ram. It will be disappointing to get the latest and greatest if it still has to refresh every web page.

 

[djgamble]

More than enough power for a phone. Although they'll scream they still want "quad core" ask them why?

Yeah... although I always find that 'they' are all people who will never buy Apple gear no matter what. I'm never sure why 'they' get such a loud voice compared with loyal customers who don't seem to be complaining about the same stuff.

 

[Donoban]

I've never felt that I need more CPU power on my iOS devices thus far while using iPhone 5 and iPad Mini Retina. I couldn't care less about the CPU performance since it will be more than enough than I'll ever need. I do however feel the need for RAM. Please Apple, get with the times and give us at least 2GB of RAM so Safari doesn't have to crash all the time.

I see you've never run ios 8 on an iPhone 4. Wait until you see what ios 11 will do to your iPhone 5s. Oh lord, give me more CPU!

 

[2IS]

I see you've never run ios 8 on an iPhone 4. Wait until you see what ios 11 will do to your iPhone 5s. Oh lord, give me more CPU!

Well he did say "thus far" I don't think he's under any illusion that an iPhone 5 will forever be enough processing power for anything that ever was and ever will be.

 

[firewood]

I see you've never run ios 8 on an iPhone 4. Wait until you see what ios 11 will do to your iPhone 5s. Oh lord, give me more CPU!

But a user browsing the web on a 5-year old budget Dell notebook (or worse, netbook) might say the same thing as well.

And what mobile phone of the same vintage as an iPhone 4 will even run the most current Android or Windows Phone OS?

 

[Donoban]

I think the iPad will never reach desktop software level (not designed or inteded for it to be so) . It already does what its supposed to do very well. We need it to be snappier with more RAM. I believe multi-tasking is where it is next.

Thats what I heard is needed for multitasking. Watching Youtube and browsing will be great.

Any one knows why Apple upgraded about everything in the iPhone/iPad (including retine displays) but refuse to upgrade the RAM?

I take your point, but apples development of the Ax chip, their recent move to being 64bit for example, could be a sign that their long term strategic plan is to make these chips desktop class.

If that's true, you'll eventually get your snappier and multitasking experience at a level of performance that's comparable to running each app individually.

I believe more ram equals more battery drain. As a previous poster mentioned, the ram is build into the chip so any increase in ram will impact chip yields and size.

Could you imagine running ios 5 on the a8? The flip side to all this is Apple continues to push the entire package, they get more CPU so they push what services are running on the device, established retina displays so they push the GUI.

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Well he did say "thus far" I don't think he's under any illusion that an iPhone 5 will forever be enough processing power for anything that ever was and ever will be.

Lolz, was just making the point his wane in desire for CPU power is fleeting and will soon return in time.

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But a user browsing the web on a 5-year old budget Dell notebook (or worse, netbook) might say the same thing as well.

And what mobile phone of the same vintage as an iPhone 4 will even run the most current Android or Windows Phone OS?

That's right, we need more POWER! Surely apple only let you install ios on an old device as a way to lead your thinking towards the need to upgrade.

 

[Apple4everr]

We are def moving into desktop quality chips, this looks like it would match a i3 while android chips could barely run a laptop

 

[Camoxide]

Apple has upgraded the RAM in the non S versions the past 2 times. So in the 4 it was upped to 512MB of ram and in the 5 it was upped to 1GB.

 

[SactoGuy18]

Apple does not need to go to a quad-core system on a chip (SoC) because by controlling both the hardware and software tightly, this means iOS doesn't need a quad-core SoC to get decent performance.

I do think the iPhone 6 models will sport 2 GB RAM, though.

 

[nando87]

I think we're at the point where iOS hardware is outpacing the software. A8 will be wicked fast (approaching Macbook Air speeds in terms of raw processing power), but there are very few apps that can even use the A7 to its full potential.

Oh shup up the photoshop app goes awful on my ultrapowered ipad air, it can't move the gallery properly. God these fanboys... But if you say the a7 is something like an i5 haswell, well, then maybe instead of a fanboy you're just an ignorant

 

[MaSx]

Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram!

 

[bobenhaus]

Everything Android fanboys boast about is a joke.

Your name says it all.

 

[iOSaddict]

just got a 5C recently which is the A6. I never, ever have encountered slow performance. Some complex websites scroll a bit choppy, though not sure if that really has anything to do with the CPU.

it's super impressive though how much power Apple packs into their phones.

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oh so there's literally nothing good about Android? It's just a joke OS?

nah. Both iPhone and Android are amazing. Get off your high horse.

Must be why Apple has been so busy ripping off Android features to improve iOS.

Ba-da-boom-tsh!

(stay cool, I are kidding)

Everything Android fanboys boast about is a joke.

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Your name says it all.

Oh I'm so glad that my purpose for picking my username has been fulfilled.

 

[bobenhaus]

I'm just saying don't be so judgmental until you actually own a different device other then apple

 

[Paddle1]

I see you've never run ios 8 on an iPhone 4. Wait until you see what ios 11 will do to your iPhone 5s. Oh lord, give me more CPU!

First, you can't run iOS 8 on an iPhone 4. Second the iPhone 4s and even more so the iPhone 5 is much faster than the 4. It won't be as slow. The iPad Mini retina is even better.

 

[HyperZboy]

No need for quad core in phones or tablets. Dual core and 2GB-4GBs of ram is perfect. Give us more battery life...

I totally agree. Faster speed, better battery life. Add multitasking in IOS to 2 apps at a time like Samsung. But, the A8 will be a much faster chip at multitasking than anything Samsung has. With them using off the shelf parts, regardless of what commercials they run now, they are still at a disadvantage.

Disclosure: I'm not an Engineer. I just play one on TV! LOL

 

[thunng8]

Because it won't be more powerful? Broadwell is an expected 30% increase from the Haswell. That means it should still be more powerful than the A8.

This is misconception is not right. No way Broadwell will be 30% faster than Haswell. Intel has only indicated that it is "up to 30%" more efficient that Haswell. Ie for the same performance, Broadwell will be up to 30% more efficient. Intel has not indicated anything about absolute performance increases.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7318/intel-demos-14nm-broadwell-up-to-30-lower-power-than-haswell

My guess for performance increase is 10-15%.

 

[thunng8]

I see you've never run ios 8 on an iPhone 4. Wait until you see what ios 11 will do to your iPhone 5s. Oh lord, give me more CPU!

Ios8 does not run on an iphone4

 

[wizard]

Do you have a source for this? I've been using computers since 8086's and I've never heard of a chip that was designed to produce a given clock rate and then intentionally under clocked due to heat. Are you forgetting just how big heat sinks used to be to maintain their advertised speeds?

Isn't that exactly what Apple does with A7? It is certainly running slower than it can in the iPHone. As to design, if the chip is targeted for slightly higher clock rates then yields go up if slower clock rates are acceptable.

 

[CausticPuppy]

Oh shup up the photoshop app goes awful on my ultrapowered ipad air, it can't move the gallery properly. God these fanboys... But if you say the a7 is something like an i5 haswell, well, then maybe instead of a fanboy you're just an ignorant

Oh you shup up! Photoshop is a dog on any processor, even the desktop version. Pretty much anything made by Adobe is. Don't blame the hardware for that.

Look at ios8's Metal API and you'll see where high performance apps are going.

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You mean the MBA from 2009, right? Yeah, it is definitely approaching those speeds.

The A7 iPad Air geekbench 3 results are already on par with the mid 2009 macbook pro.

You don't think the A8 will be faster?