Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone 5 A6 Processor - Neither Cortex A9 nor A15

samac92 said:
The S3 processor wasn't that much better than the A5, especially in graphics performance.

Image
Click to expand...

Oh look, I can handpick benchmarks, too.
46298.png


The Galaxy S3 CPU is much faster than the iPhone 4S's. However, its GPU is roughly the same.
 
I know ARM; their business model isn't like Intel's consumer-friendly architecture. There is no single ARM architecture; what ARM actually delivers is a variety of abstract specifications and tests. Licensees design the logic that fulfills those specs (or buy an off-the-shelf component from someone like Samsung or Qualcomm or one of the many others). Different licensees come up with vastly different implementations, which is why for example Windows RT only works with certain chipsets from certain manufacturers (e.g. Qualcomm Snapdragon).

Royalties typically aren't a consideration. ARMs per-chip royalties are extremely low (varies based on customer and chip, but not usually more than 1c a chip IIRC).

Apple has a license that allows them to build logic designs from the ground-up using ARM's specs.
 
FloatingBones said:
Apple won't want to have the old 30-pin connector on the iPad for any longer than necessary. A refresh of the product seems highly likely.

How difficult would it be to put this chip on the current iPad?
Click to expand...

A6X quad core gpu, for all the ipad retina pixels, quad cpu not yet useful in mobile, March 2013.
 
This is why Apple doesn't bother listing out every detail specification. Because they are doing things that has never been done, yes for all those haters, this is true innovation. Not tossing the latest CPU/GPU on the market in a plastic shell and calling it the best phone out due to some spec list. This is also why Apple controls everything, so the end user gets the benefit of custom everything, built for one specific purpose.

The A.D.D crowd screams and howls they should be able to do whatever they want with their device, but Apple honestly doesn't cater to those few nor frankly care you can't move around some wallpaper or widget. They know 98%+ of the people buying their product will love the stability and reliability of the device. Apple fan, consumer or hater, this is the type of innovation that will help the entire smartphone/portable computer industry going forward.


innovation |ˌinəˈvāSHən|
noun
the action or process of innovating.
• a new method, idea, product, etc.: technological innovations designed to save energy.

Ya, this is one of those. :)
 
theineffablebob said:
Oh look, I can handpick benchmarks, too.
Image

The Galaxy S3 CPU is much faster than the iPhone 4S's. However, its GPU is roughly the same.
Click to expand...

That's why I specifically mentioned the GPU, and I picked a benchmark that shouldn't be affected by software as the browsermark test will be. But yes the S3 processor is faster than the 4S, but shouldn't be faster than the A6.
 
apple is truly controlling all aspects of design and operation. Their own CPU, their own OS, and inventing new manufacturing processes. They could own Foxconn or their own fabrication company in China it likely never will.

I really wish they would design a car or a home. It would be so awesome (but I probably couldn't afford it).
 
When you say S3 you have to be more specific. In the US we only got a dual core CPU because the quad used across the pond doesn't play nice with LTE chips. Those overseas have a completely different chip in their S3's.

This does look to be a potential game changer. Biggest downside of LTE has been battery life. If Apple has managed to design a chip that increases performance double and still dramatically reduces power consumption then that is what I would call a game changer. They've peaked my interest.

That said, I really don't use the CPU that much on my phone. It seems the data pipe is the congestion point, not processing power. LTE certainly has the potential to change that, if I ever get it.
 
MacRetina said:
"Apple’s A6 chip verbiage reveals Samsung-built processor, 1GB of 1066MHz RAM"
Click to expand...

Interesting but note that in this case Samsung is a mere fabrication plant, just like a print shop they manufacture other peoples designs.
 
All Samsung is going to do is start over-clocking the S III's processor to make it faster and suffer a bit of a loss in battery life. I think I'd heard the S III's battery life is longer than than the iPhone's battery life to begin with. Samsung will just change the performance profiles on the S III's processor with an OS update. Those Droidbois love over-clocking their Droid device's processors because it gives them freedom of choice to do anything they want. :D
 
bossxii said:
This is why Apple doesn't bother listing out every detail specification. Because they are doing things that has never been done, yes for all those haters, this is true innovation. Not tossing the latest CPU/GPU on the market in a plastic shell and calling it the best phone out due to some spec list. This is also why Apple controls everything, so the end user gets the benefit of custom everything, built for one specific purpose.

The A.D.D crowd screams and howls they should be able to do whatever they want with their device, but Apple honestly doesn't cater to those few nor frankly care you can't move around some wallpaper or widget. They know 98%+ of the people buying their product will love the stability and reliability of the device. Apple fan, consumer or hater, this is the type of innovation that will help the entire smartphone/portable computer industry going forward.


innovation |ˌinəˈvāSHən|
noun
the action or process of innovating.
• a new method, idea, product, etc.: technological innovations designed to save energy.

Ya, this is one of those. :)
Click to expand...

Uh...no. Apple doesn't do specs because when you buy an Apple product, you're buying the implementation of it, and perception is key. Apple doesn't like competing on specs because at dollar per dollar for hardware, Apple seldom does better (Sometimes it does, like Apple v. Dell for Merom chipset laptops back in the day). Its like Bose in this regard-Bose produces quality products generally, but when it gets down to it, you can get better products usually in the same price range. So you have your Bose haters saying they're inferior, overpriced products (sound familiar?) and then you have people like me who complain about Bose but love the comfort and ease of use in their products due to laziness as well as their (in my experience, very good) customer support.

Thus for Apple talking about specs is usually a losing proposition. Even for the month or two they might have a good spec.

And when it suits Apple, they definitely talk about their specs. This chip obviously isn't a quad core CPU because, if it was, Apple would tell you it was.

Also Apple won't tell you the speed of their mobile chips because they're always underclocked to save battery and not overheat. They're not alone in this regard, either, but the true performance probably wouldn't look good against another brand's untrue performance, and if Apple lists the unused maximum, people would complain about that, too.
 
I wander what ramifications this will have on the Jailbreak process and searching for an exploit, if any.
 
This is where Apple is really starting to excel. Forget the shiny black metal casing and new port connector. This is what makes Apple "think different".
 
boomhower said:
When you say S3 you have to be more specific. In the US we only got a dual core CPU because the quad used across the pond doesn't play nice with LTE chips. Those overseas have a completely different chip in their S3's.

This does look to be a potential game changer. Biggest downside of LTE has been battery life. If Apple has managed to design a chip that increases performance double and still dramatically reduces power consumption then that is what I would call a game changer. They've peaked my interest.

That said, I really don't use the CPU that much on my phone. It seems the data pipe is the congestion point, not processing power. LTE certainly has the potential to change that, if I ever get it.
Click to expand...
Piqued*

4 is capablof 3-5mbps
4S 5-10mbps

Thats more than many have hardwired to their homes, I'm not sure what you're use case is, but its definitely not the norm.
 
theineffablebob said:
Oh look, I can handpick benchmarks, too.
Image

The Galaxy S3 CPU is much faster than the iPhone 4S's. However, its GPU is roughly the same.
Click to expand...

One would hope...i mean the Galaxy S3 is only what, 7 months older than the 4S? Also 4 (or even 2) higher clocked processors versus 2 lower clocked ones.
 
Last edited:
FloatingBones said:
Apple won't want to have the old 30-pin connector on the iPad for any longer than necessary. A refresh of the product seems highly likely.

How difficult would it be to put this chip on the current iPad?
Click to expand...

I'm betting they do and size it back down. If they do I'll be selling mine and trading up.

----------
theineffablebob said:
Oh look, I can handpick benchmarks, too.
Image

The Galaxy S3 CPU is much faster than the iPhone 4S's. However, its GPU is roughly the same.
Click to expand...

Too bad the OS slows it down.
 
Seriously, anyone who claims Apple has stopped innovating ought to read this first.

Innovation goes beyond skin deep. Simply slapping a larger screen and changing the design of the casing is extremely superficial; any company can do that. The harder thing is to spend all that money and resources on 'under the hood' improvements that serve an important purpose, even if they don't receive any screen time.

I like that Apple is actually investing all this resources into ensuring that its hardware and software continue to play well together, rather than simply throwing in better specs and whatever tech buzzword is the flavour of the month. They have taken great pains to redesign the screen to make it thinner and less power-intensive, made the processor smaller and more power-efficien and actually improved the durability of the casing, all while making it lighter.

When you consider that the iphone5 is taller yet thinner, this means the internal volume isn't any different (or actually smaller), yet Apple has managed to cram all these improvements inside, without being suckered into using a larger shell instead.

If this isn't innovation, I don't know what is. :)
 
One thing to keep in mind is that we don't actually know for sure at this point that it is a custom design. Anand is trustworthy and has lots of industry connections, but he hasn't told us exactly how he know's it's not an ARM Cortex A15 (besides talking to undisclosed sources). What we do know for sure is that it's not an ARM Cortex A9 like previous generations are, because we know from XCode 4.5 that Apple just added an ARM architecture that supports VFPv4, which is unsupported by ARM Cortex A9. Anand is usually right, but it's not a sure thing yet, and he has literally just changed his position since yesterday when he reported that it's an ARM Cortex A15.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back