Teardown of Apple's A6 Chip Reveals Manual Layout of Custom Dual-Core CPU

[motorazr]

Bravo, Apple.

So the lesson here, is that it's still better to do things by hand; with the *assistance* of technology instead of total automation .. or something.

 

[andrebrait]

So, is it 32 or 28nm? Other news posted in Macrumors said it's 28nm.

 

[chrmjenkins]

that's true, the datapaths could have been entirely done by hand but most likely the control logic is autoplaced and autorouted. regular structures are a lot easier to do by hand. having said that, the only things we laid out by hand were ddr3 memory interfaces but then again we never had such aggressive power requirements. block memories are always hand placed but that's kind of part of the floorplan.

"We"? 🙂

So, is it 32 or 28nm? Other news posted in Macrumors said it's 28nm.

If it's Samsung, it has to be 32nm. And there's no question it's Samsung.

 

[dewski]

can someone explain this? does it mean that the initial design was created by hand? or every single phone has a hand made chip

 

[iphaedrus]

So what are the other areas, that aren't GPU, CPU, PLLs, etc?

The other areas help to make Angry Birds even more Angry.

 

[gdesalvo@umail.]

Did you even read the article? You do realize this isn't an A15 core, right?

You've seen the iPhone 6? You must have some super high clearance at Apple. 😀

Edit: What device is using the Krait core? Do we have any benchmarks comparing the 2? The innovation in this design is the effort Apple went through to make it the most efficient and also most powerful mobile processor currently on the market.

Did you notice the figure where it clearly labels it as an ARM design core?

----------

"We"? 🙂



If it's Samsung, it has to be 32nm. And there's no question it's Samsung.

actually if i'm not mistaken samsung manufactures the 28nm Krait cores which are also based on arm designs

 

[Geckotek]

Did you notice the figure where it clearly labels it as an ARM design core?

It's ARM technology licensed and designed by Apple.

 

[joeblough]

"We"? 🙂

i used to do asic design work at a big networking gear manufacturer. we were on 40nm about 3 years ago - big chips, ridiculous power consumption.

 

[chrmjenkins]

actually if i'm not mistaken samsung manufactures the 28nm Krait cores which are also based on arm designs

Samsung won't even have their 28nm fabs ready until H2 2013. Krait is manufactured by TSMC and will presumably be manufactured by UMC at some point given Qualcomm's deal with them.

Krait (and A6) isn't based on ARM designs the same way Exynos, OMAP and Tegra chips are. They use the same ISA and have similarities in execution width, but their pipeline depths are vastly different, making them inherently much more custom than reference design cores.

can someone explain this? does it mean that the initial design was created by hand? or every single phone has a hand made chip

The initial design was routed and placed by hand as opposed to automatically by software. Every phone does not have a hand made chip though. Silicon gremlins have claws, not hands. So every phone has a claw-made chip. This is standard industry practice though.

 

[Marcus-k]

so it's dual core, but can beat the shizz out of quad core phones. awesome !!

Really? The quad core version of the Galaxy SIII performs better then the iPhone 5, atleast according to geekbench.

 

[tkatz]

Apple innovation FTW! 😀

Logistics, and manufactured by Samsung? Not apple, and the A15 core is a ARM design, not an Apple design. As for Innovation the Krait core does something very similar to the Apple A6 and was brought out to the market over 6 months ago. I'm not sure how this is any innovation on Apple's part. The iphone 6 only really has one new innovation it brings to the market...Apple Maps...and we all know how most people out there feel about it.

Did you notice the figure where it clearly labels it as an ARM design core?

Lets see…

in·no·vate/ˈinəˌvāt/
Verb: Make changes in something established, esp. by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.

FTFA:

• Samsung isn't completely absent in the A6, though. The Apple A6—labeled APL0598 on the package marks and APL0589B01 on the inside—is fabricated by Samsung on their 32 nm CMOS process and measures 9.70 mm x 9.97 mm.

• Even though the A6 was manufactured by Samsung, that doesn't mean it was designed by Samsung. The Apple A6 processor is Apple's first custom-designed processor. It's based on the ARMv7s instruction set.

• Because Apple had complete control over the design of the processor, they were able to customize and tweak the performance to their liking.

I would call that innovating.

 

[subsonix]

Really? The quad core version of the Galaxy SIII performs better then the iPhone 5, atleast according to geekbench.

At least according to Geekbench's public average score this particular week.

 

[Geckotek]

Really? The quad core version of the Galaxy SIII performs better then the iPhone 5, atleast according to geekbench.

Got a link showing that? The benchmarks I saw showed the iPhone 5 winning in all but 2 tests.

 

[gnasher729]

Did you notice the figure where it clearly labels it as an ARM design core?

actually if i'm not mistaken samsung manufactures the 28nm Krait cores which are also based on arm designs

"Based on ARM designs". All the ARM processors are _based_ on ARM designs. What Apple added is what makes this better than other chips _based_ on ARM designs. And your "Krait" cores that you somehow seem immensely proud of are designed for use in servers, so more performance while wasting some power. Totally unsuitable for a phone. We'll probably see them soon in phones not made by Apple.

 

[jmpnop]

Is Samsung going to sue over this too?

Huh? Its Apple who's the biggest patent troll..

 

[teknikal90]

manually laid? what does that even mean....lol...

 

[frank100]

can someone explain this? does it mean that the initial design was created by hand? or every single phone has a hand made chip

it is not about the production or a guy with very tiny fingers moving around the parts. chip makers design the components (little boxes) of a chip with a chip making program. Usually they let the program to decide how to arrange and place the parts. Imagine how annoying is to arrange thousand of little squares of different sizes so everything is efficient and form a big square with little spaces in between and respecting lots of crazy arrangement rules.

Here handmade means that some engineers decided to write "the blueprint" that must be delivered to the fabric arranging those parts by hand.

 

[DTphonehome]

can someone explain this? does it mean that the initial design was created by hand? or every single phone has a hand made chip

Yes, each chip is handmade. They require people with tiny hands to lay out each one. Which is why they employ children (and elves when they are available). This is also why there's a backlog of iPhone 5s, as it can take weeks to months to make each chip. So if you place an order now, it could take many months before the chipmaker gets to your order. But rest assured, that chip will be handmade to your exact specifications. That's the luxury of a bespoke chip.

 

[joeblough]

Yes, each chip is handmade. They require people with tiny hands to lay out each one. Which is why they employ children (and elves when they are available). This is also why there's a backlog of iPhone 5s, as it can take weeks to months to make each chip. So if you place an order now, it could take many months before the chipmaker gets to your order. But rest assured, that chip will be handmade to your exact specifications. That's the luxury of a bespoke chip.

extra elves are on their way from iceland as we speak!

 

[subsonix]

it is not about the production or a guy with very tiny fingers moving around the parts. chip makers design the components (little boxes) of a chip with a chip making program. Usually they let the program to decide how to arrange and place the parts. Imagine how annoying is to arrange thousand of little squares of different sizes so everything is efficient and form a big square with little spaces in between and respecting lots of crazy arrangement rules.

Yes, and each little box is also interconnected with the other boxes with a small trace, these traces can not cross, so it either has to find a another route or use another layer.

 

[Tankmaze]

Really? The quad core version of the Galaxy SIII performs better then the iPhone 5, atleast according to geekbench.

If the s3 on jelly bean yes, it beat the iphone by a 100. On the ICS, iphone 5 wins.

http://www.androidauthority.com/iph...ch-benchmark-certain-conditions-apply-115393/

The point is dual core vs quad core, and the dual core iphone is comparable to the "spec bragging" samesung. Imagine if apple put quad core in there.

 

[Marcus-k]

Got a link showing that? The benchmarks I saw showed the iPhone 5 winning in all but 2 tests.

Here, iPhone 5 1586 points, Galaxy SIII 1831 points. The scores you saw were of one single device, that could even have been faked, yet sites like Macrumours still spread it to make the iPhone look better then it really is. These links are to the averages of all those phones tested.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/ios-benchmarks
http://browser.primatelabs.com/android-benchmarks

 

[subsonix]

Here, iPhone 5 1586 points, Galaxy SIII 1831 points.

This was the score on Sep 16, I saw it with my own eyes.

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/15702578/

This all point's to a heavy bias in the submissions in the last week, since the score is an average among a fairly large amount of submissions.

 

[Geckotek]

Here, iPhone 5 1586 points, Galaxy SIII 1831 points. The scores you saw were of one single device, that could even have been faked, yet sites like Macrumours still spread it to make the iPhone look better then it really is. These links are to the averages of all those phones tested.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/ios-benchmarks
http://browser.primatelabs.com/android-benchmarks

I think I'm going to trust the one on one performed on 2 clean and controlled devices vs some amalgamation of scores from who knows what kind of devices. But thanks for providing the link.

 

[khovland92]

Here, iPhone 5 1586 points, Galaxy SIII 1831 points. The scores you saw were of one single device, that could even have been faked, yet sites like Macrumours still spread it to make the iPhone look better then it really is. These links are to the averages of all those phones tested.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/ios-benchmarks
http://browser.primatelabs.com/android-benchmarks

lol umm dude. MacRUMORS. They arent spreading facts they are spreading RUMORS.

Besides, I'm sure many Galaxy S3 fanboys altered their devices to get the absolute best score possible (even if its an unnatural score). The point is before the android inflation, it naturally beat it. It also says a lot about Apple vs others in terms of specs. Even with Android edging it, Apple still nearly performs with half the cores.

Though real world performance is based on what App developers make for it. With single, dual, and quad core Android phones with half a gig, a gig, and 2 gigs of ram, with varying screen sizes and other hardware variances, it makes it that much harder for app devs to want to tailor apps for the S3.

Tailoring apps for the new iPhone? easy. 25% on iOS 6 within 1 week. 2% of Android users on 4.1 after 2 months. App devs on iOS know iPhone 5/iOS 6. App devs on android have to know 100 different hardware configs and a dozen varying OS's.