Apple A15
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2021) |
 | |
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | September 14, 2021 |
| Designed by | Apple Inc. |
| Common manufacturer | |
| Product code | APL1W07[1] |
| Max. CPU clock rate | to 2.93 GHz in iPad Mini 6[2] 3.23 GHz in iPhone 13 Pro[3] |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Application | Mobile |
| Technology node | 5 nm |
| Microarchitecture | "Avalanche" and "Blizzard" |
| Instruction set | A64 |
| Physical specifications | |
| Transistors |
|
| Cores |
|
| GPUs | Apple-designed 4 core GPU in iPhone 13 / 13 Mini Apple-designed 5 core GPU in iPhone 13 Pro / 13 Pro Max and iPad Mini 6 |
| History | |
| Predecessor | Apple A14 |
The Apple A15 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. It is used in the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, and the 2021 iPad Mini.[4] Apple made no claims of increased performance from its predecessor SoC.
Design
The Apple A15 Bionic features an Apple-designed 64-bit six-core CPU implementing ARMv8 with two high-performance cores called Avalanche and four energy-efficient cores called Blizzard. Apple claims the A15 in the iPhones is 50% faster than the competition. Apple claims the A15 in the iPad Mini 6 is 40% faster than the A12.[5]
The A15 contains 15 billion transistors and includes dedicated neural network hardware that Apple calls a new 16-core Neural Engine.[6] The Neural Engine can perform 15.8 trillion operations per second, faster than A14's 11 trillion operations per second (+ 43%).[6] The A15 also includes a new image processor (ISP) with improved computational photography capabilities.[7] Apple also boosted performance by doubling the system cache to 32MB.[8]
The A15 has video codec encoding support for HEVC and H.264. It has decoding support for HEVC, H.264, MPEG‑4 Part 2, and Motion JPEG.[9] Codecs VP8 and VP9 are also unofficially supported. The AV1 codec is not supported via hardware acceleration.[10]
A15 is manufactured by TSMC, reportedly on their second-generation 5 nm fabrication process, N5P.[11][12]
GPU
The A15 integrates an Apple-designed five-core GPU for the iPad mini 6, iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max models, while one GPU core is disabled in the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini, resulting in a four-core GPU for these models.[13] Apple claims the A15's five-core GPU is 50% faster than the competition. Apple claims the A15's four-core GPU is 30% faster than the competition.[5]
Products that include the Apple A15 Bionic
See also
- Apple silicon, range of ARM-based processors designed by Apple for their products
- Comparison of ARMv8-A cores
References
- ^ What's inside the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Teardown?
- ^ https://www.notebookcheck.net/Underclocked-The-A15-chip-inside-Apple-s-new-iPad-mini-6-is-slower-than-in-the-iPhone-13.562249.0.html
- ^ https://sparrowsnews.com/2021/09/16/iphone-13-pro-geekbench-score/
- ^ "Apple A15 Bionic Powers iPhone 13 and iPad Mini". Tom's Hardware. September 14, 2021.
- ^ a b Frumusanu, Andrei (September 14, 2021). "Apple Announces iPhone 13 Series: A15, New Cameras, New Screens". AnandTech. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
- ^ a b Shankland, Stephen (September 14, 2021). "Apple's A15 Bionic chip powers iPhone 13 with 15 billion transistors, new graphics and AI". CNET. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
- ^ "Apple unveils iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max — more pro than ever before". Apple Newsroom.
- ^ "Apple unveils new a15 bionic soc". ExtremeTech.
- ^ "iPhone 13 - Technical Specifications". support.apple.com. Retrieved 2021-10-24.
- ^ https://www.cpu-monkey.com/de/compare_cpu-apple_a15_bionic-2130-vs-apple_a10_fusion-1656
- ^ Hruska, Joel (September 15, 2021). "Apple Unveils New A15 Bionic SoC". ExtremeTech. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
- ^ Sohail, Omar (March 30, 2021). "Apple's A15 Bionic to Use TSMC's 'N5P' Process for the Upcoming iPhone 13 Series; Mass Production Could Start in May". Wccftech. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
- ^ Espósito, Filipe (2021-09-15). "iPhone 13 Pro's A15 Bionic chip has more powerful GPU than regular iPhone 13". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 2021-09-15.
