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

Samsung to Produce A9 Chips for Apple's Next-Generation Devices

Here is what the a9 is going up against.this is a gs6 clocked at 1.5ghz and a pre production unit.the final will run at 2.1ghz
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_2015-02-04-22-46-30.png
    Screenshot_2015-02-04-22-46-30.png
    288.4 KB · Views: 181
skratch77 said:
Here is what the a9 is going up against.this is a gs6 clocked at 1.5ghz and a pre production unit.the final will run at 2.1ghz
Click to expand...

Not sure what your getting at. With a 14nm process and no architectural change, A9 would blast this out at a lower clock speed.
 
iSunrise said:
The A9 (like the A8 was) is reserved for the cutting edge smartphones and there's VERY limited production capacity for the A9 in 2015. Apple already started producing the A9 at Samsung, because they need absolutely everything Samsung can make for their iPhones.

It's not like there is a choice. You will always use your high-end SoCs where they make the most sense first. The A8X is a different SoC that is solely targetted for the bigger iPads, which also have a way larger battery then the iPhone ever will. The bigger iPads is where Apple can go all-out, but iPhone is where it actually matters for Apple. Their whole strategy is based on iPhone first.

The A8 at least technologically is good enough for the mini, don't get your hopes up. If Apple decides otherwise, then because they want to broaden the range of sold devices with new technology that only the A9/A9X will have. But this won't happen too soon, since Samsung can only produce a limited amount of SoCs this year, their wafer output is limited and so is the yields of 14nm in the first year in mass production.
Click to expand...

So in other words, you're expecting another minor update to the mini? I hope you're wrong because I'm thinking of upgrading my iPad Air later this year and I think I want something smaller, hopefully with a display that has a better color gamut and the A9/2GB RAM combo to keep the mini 4 from being outdated from day one.
 
zone23 said:
Samsung's just waiting to get the new schematics from Apple so they can design the chips for the new Galaxy S6. Nothing beats giving top secrete designs to the competition.
Click to expand...

Samsung produced A-chip for previous iPhone and remained bound to the strict contract that A-chip intelligent design belongs to Apple 100%. This won't change in the future.

Samsung may use their own Exynos chip, but that chip based on the current Snapdragon technology. At this point, still not 64-bit yet.
 
mhunter207 said:
Apple always using the latest greatest manufacturing technology, which is honestly always so great to see year in and year out. being on the very best manufacturing node is nothing but great news in terms of both performance and battery life gains every year that passes by. Samsung and Apple will really be on 14nm this year while majority of competition will still be on 20nm
Click to expand...

Samsung will be in 14nm long before Apple Ax use 14nm. Exynos 7420 is on 14nm, which would be like 6months before the Apple has any SOC in 14nm. Also Qualcomm and nvidia are interested in 14nm process and could likely shift to Samsung's process this year. Samsung already produce a small part of Qualcomm, and they will do that in large numbers this year. Sasme for nvidia. Apple is not the only one with 14nm. Intel is already doing that.

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...ps-for-qualcomm-apple-possibly-nvidia-in-2015
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-samsung-14nm-apple-qualcomm,28493.html
 
Samsung as a supplier is just fine. Samsung as a grossly obvious copycat is unlawful and keeps lawyers on both sides busy in way too many courts. Keep maximizing the pain.

The one feature Apple is NOT listening to user feedback on, is a bigger battery and slightly thicker phone. Listen! Option?
 
Sirious said:
I keep my iPhones for nostalgia haha
Click to expand...

I keep my old iPhones for backup. In case mine gets stolen or goes for a swim. Can't do without these days...

----------

You know what I don't get here on this thread? All the "the chip is a beast", "The A9 is awesome!!", "It's so powerful!"... Guys? Really? No, it's not. The chip is as powerful as any other chip like it on the market, but not any more than any other high powered chip. Heck, even Intel is making chips that meet or beat any other ARM based chip on the market today. But, there's more...

What I'm trying to say is you guys need to get educated on what the real winner here is. That these chips along WITH iOS. Apple's winning strategy is to build the whole machine, hardware and software. Together they make a highly competitive device for the market today. But powerful? Well, maybe enough to impress a few fan boys, but really not so much if you really dig deep into what it can do with bare metal access to it's programmability...
 
Darrensk8 said:
You know, I see posts like this quite often and I wonder what I'm doing wrong, I'm lucky to get much over 7 hours usage from my 6 plus.....of course if I don't use it I'll easily get 1.5 days but that kind of defeats the purpose 😕
Click to expand...

In "Settings" you can check which apps are killing your battery, I found myself in the same boat as you, and when I checked, I found that an app I use to get 10 cents off on a gallon of gas was not terminating after the gas was pumped. I had to manually close it out. It was using 25% of my battery!

You never know what weirdness goes on in there!
 
Will be interesting to see how many generations of iPhones until we see a smaller lithography process than 14nm. Just look at all the trouble Intel has been having ramping up 14nm at acceptable yields. Node jumps are getting harder and harder.

Still, Apple needs to up their game, despite brilliant sales I feel a bit underwhelmed for the first time with their phones. No 2GB of LPDDR? No 1080p 4.7" version (my biggest gripe). I like the slight curve on the display but the aluminium body is a bit dull. Also perhaps we could start seeing something with a few more cores - I'm not the type that believes more cores is always better. I think having a dual core in iPhones has been a very good move up until now. But I would like to see more capable chips.
And for the love of God Apple, stop making them thinner and thinner and focus on battery life for once.
 
SCOLANATOR said:
No 1080p 4.7" version (my biggest gripe).
Click to expand...

I really don't get this, when I switched from the iPhone 5 to the 6 Plus, there was nearly no difference in crispness with the 401 ppi vs the 326 ppi. The only difference it made was that when I hold the phone's display super close to my eyes, it's much harder to notice the individual pixels. I don't care whether Apple or anyone else does it, increasing pixel density is pointless under normal use.

Pixel density and quality is a graph of diminishing returns. After a certain point, as you increase the pixel density the graph falls like a cliff with other impacts such as battery life. I can't wait for the Android phones with 4K. 🙄
 
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