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XboxEvolved

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 22, 2004
1,001
1,275
So I am including all the silicon that has been developed by Apple from A4 on up, I just wasn't sure if I should put this in here or in the Apple general discussion. Anyways, to me these are the most important/favorites that I have:

1. Apple A7 first seen in the iPhone 5S, it was the first 64-bit ARM processor sold, and was the first time I realized that oh, Apple will make their own chips in their computers someday. This is in 2013, 5 years before anyone seriously considered the idea. I would post about the possibility on here and other forums and would constantly get a barrage of people saying I didn't understand how chips worked, that it couldn't scale like that, etc while they themselves couldn't really explain their reasoning. I remember that the processor was so advanced, that it blindsided the likes of Qualcomm and Samsung, and Apple seems to have kept a 1-2 year advance over the competition since.

2. Apple A13 First seen in the iPhone 11 family in 2019, it later became the basis of the Apple Watch Series 6 (and 7, 8, 9), was used in the Studio Display, and many other devices. It was also the first 5NM chip to be used in consumer products. Most of all it was the basis of what I would argue is Apple's greatest achievement since the iPhone. Still use my iPhone 11 and Series 6 to this day!

3. Apple M1 This was an industry shifting chip, proving that ARM is the future of PCs, and was so much that it is part of the reason why Intel is tanking nowadays. The gains then and now are still being felt. You can even still buy the M1 MBA in Walmarts, and to this day it still stacks up well against a lot of newer PCs.

So what about you guys? Any favorites or chips they made that you think is very significant? Also, I was bored and made this wallpaper:
1735662030767.jpeg
 
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I agree with the A7 and M1 being major achievements for Apple, but I'm not sure why the A13 specifically stands out for you, as it was really just an evolution of the A12 that came before it. The A11 was the first chip to use of big little heterogeneous multi processing and the A12 was the first to have true ML capabilities (the A11 technically had ML cores too but it was only ever used for Face ID and was a basic off the shelf solution compared to the custom cores in the A12).

I'd also mention the A6, as while it is often forgotten since it was the last 32 bit chip (along with the A6X), it was the first to use a custom Apple designed CPU rather than a licensed ARM design.
 
I agree with the A7 and M1 being major achievements for Apple, but I'm not sure why the A13 specifically stands out for you, as it was really just an evolution of the A12 that came before it. The A11 was the first chip to use of big little heterogeneous multi processing and the A12 was the first to have true ML capabilities (the A11 technically had ML cores too but it was only ever used for Face ID and was a basic off the shelf solution compared to the custom cores in the A12).

I'd also mention the A6, as while it is often forgotten since it was the last 32 bit chip (along with the A6X), it was the first to use a custom Apple designed CPU rather than a licensed ARM design.
No the A13 was a different design than the A12 using the 5NM node, I read a lot of technical interviews with their engineers and they talked about how significant it was compared to their past efforts, and I don't think they will get a huge shift like that again until 2026.
 
No the A13 was a different design than the A12 using the 5NM node, I read a lot of technical interviews with their engineers and they talked about how significant it was compared to their past efforts, and I don't think they will get a huge shift like that again until 2026.
The A13 was built on N7P, which was TSMC's 2nd generation 7 nm process which was an optimized version of the N7 process that the A12 chip was on. The A14 was the first Apple chip built on a 5 nm process. The A13 was mostly notable for being more power efficient than the A12, which when combined with larger batteries brought some serious improvements to battery life with the iPhone 11 series.
 
The A13 was built on N7P, which was TSMC's 2nd generation 7 nm process which was an optimized version of the N7 process that the A12 chip was on. The A14 was the first Apple chip built on a 5 nm process. The A13 was mostly notable for being more power efficient than the A12, which when combined with larger batteries brought some serious improvements to battery life with the iPhone 11 series.
I stand corrected, however the M1 is still based off the A13 despite the A13 7nm node compared to the 5nm node used in M1.
 
A12Z 'Bionic'

I found (and resurrected) two 12.9 iPP Gen4's I found at the dump last year, and they were amazing.

Gifted one to a co-worker (actually her son), and the other to my SO

When I used 'em, they were splendid.

SO seems to find the iPP quite useful . . . she hasn't had any concerns.

Things will probably change over the next few years, but I really don't currently notice much of a performance increase over what I remember with my M4 iPP in daily use 🤷‍♂️
 
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