Apple A6
 The A6 processor |
|
| Produced | From September 2012 to Present |
|---|---|
| Designed by | Apple Inc. |
| Common manufacturer(s) | |
| Max. CPU clock rate | 1.3 GHz dual-core |
| Min. feature size | 32 nm |
| Instruction set | ARMv7s |
| Microarchitecture | Swift[3];ARMv7-A compatible |
| Product code | S5L8950X |
| Cores | 2 |
| L1 cache | 32/32 kB |
| L2 cache | 1 MB |
| Predecessor | Apple A5 |
| Variant | Apple A6X |
The Apple A6 is a system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. that drives the iPhone 5 which was introduced on September 12, 2012. Apple states that it is up to twice as fast and has up to twice the graphics power compared to its predecessor the Apple A5.[4]
Contents |
Design [edit]
The A6 is said to use a 1.3 GHz[5] custom Apple-designed ARMv7 based dual-core CPU,[6] called Swift,[3] rather than a licensed CPU from ARM like in previous designs, and an integrated triple-core PowerVR SGX 543MP3[1] graphics processing unit (GPU). The A6 chip also incorporates 1GB of LPDDR2-1066 RAM compared to 512MB of LPDDR2-800 RAM in the iPhone 4S providing double the memory capacity while increasing the theoretical memory bandwidth from 6.4 GB/s to 8.5 GB/s.[7]
Manufactured by Samsung on a High-κ metal gate (HKMG) 32 nm process, the chip is 96.71 mm2 large[2] which is 22% smaller than the A5 and it consumes less power than its predecessor.[8]
Information is scarce but the Swift core uses a new tweaked instruction set, ARMv7s, featuring some elements of the ARM Cortex-A15 such as support for the Advanced SIMD v2, and VFPv4.[6] Analysis suggests that the Swift core has a triple-wide frontend and two FPUs, compared to a two-wide core with a single FPU in the Cortex-A9 based predecessor.[3]
A version of the A6 with higher frequency and four graphic cores is called Apple A6X and is found in the fourth generation iPad.
Products that include the Apple A6 [edit]
See also [edit]
- Apple system on chips, the series of ARM based system-on-a-chip (SoC) processors designed by Apple for their consumer electronic devices.
- Apple A6X
References [edit]
- ^ a b Apple A6 Die Revealed: 3-core GPU, <100mm^2, Anandtech.com, 2012-09-21, retrieved 2012-09-22
- ^ a b Apple A6 Teardown, ifixit.com, 2012-09-25, retrieved 2012-09-25
- ^ a b c Anand Lal Shimpi, Brian Klug, Vivek Gowri (2012-10-16), The iPhone 5 Review - Decoding Swift, AnandTech, retrieved 2012-10-17
- ^ Apple Introduces iPhone 5, Apple.com, 2012-09-12, retrieved 2012-09-20
- ^ Apple's A6 CPU actually clocked at around 1.3 GHz, per new Geekbench report, Engadget, 2012-09-26, retrieved 2012-09-26
- ^ a b Anand Lal Shimpi (2012-09-15), iPhone 5's A6 SoC: Not A15 or A9, a Custom Apple Core Instead, AnandTech, retrieved 2012-09-18
- ^ "iPhone 5 Memory Size and Speed Revealed: 1GB LPDDR2-1066". Anandtech. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
- ^ Apple: A6 chip in iPhone 5 has 2x CPU power, 2x graphics performance, yet consumes less energy, Engadget, 2012-09-12, retrieved 2012-09-18
External links [edit]
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