Apple's iPhone 5 Uses A6 SoC
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 12, 2012 1:27 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- iPhone 5
This one caught us off guard, but Apple just announced the A6 SoC powering the new iPhone 5 features 2x faster CPU and GPU performance compared to the iPhone 4S. Apple reserves major Ax SoC number iterations for architecture changes, combine that with the performance claims as well as some other stuff we've heard offline and there's one conclusion: the iPhone 5 uses ARM Cortex A15 cores inside. Update: It uses a custom Apple core!
Our guess is two cores. No word on the GPU yet.
The A6 is 22% smaller than the A5, although it's not clear if that's a package or die size claim yet. There's a good chance this is built on Samsung's 32nm LP HK+MG process.
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mrtanner70 - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
Almost looks like Exynos.Curious if Samsung really wanted to integrate Imagination just for Apple?
iwod - Thursday, September 13, 2012 - link
The common Internet myth about Apple using Exynos based SoC. No Smasung hasn't make the design ever since they used Mali as their Exynos GPU, and Samsung's A15 wont even have a product shipping it this year.vision33r - Thursday, September 13, 2012 - link
It just shows how ignorant most Android fans or Apple haters are to think that Apple steals from Samsung.Maybe all Android fans should look at history before posting such nonsense.
Samsung is nothing but a big conglomerate that take trendy ideas and mass produce them.
adonishong - Thursday, September 13, 2012 - link
Just get a news from insider source...Most Samsung SOC are designed by Broadcom, they mostly rebrand Broadcom chipset...
Scannall - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
Apple designs and lays out their SoC's. Samsung is just the foundry.syxbit - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
If the A6 really uses an A15, then that's amazing. By comparison, Nvidia and TI both suck big time. Before, Nvidia had a worse GPU than Apple, but higher clocked quad core CPU. Now though, The Tegra line is worse than Apple in everything. And don't get me started on TI. What a complete joke. The best they have is still the OMAP 4470. Pathetic.Also, while I agree with the A15 conclusion, but it's still a guess until confirmed. The speed increase alone shouldn't be anything to go on. They could have done that with a 1.6Ghz pair of A9s (like T3). which at 32nm, should be possible.
It's a good time to be an Apple user. As an Android user myself, I only have A9's (or krait) as an option :(
CCRATA - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
You do realize that Krait is (almost) an A15. In fact it is better than A15's in certain areas (like the fact that it has a 128-bit FPU, instead of 64-bit). Performance wise they will be nearly identical at the same speeds.zorxd - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
Even if Krait was a little slower, it came out 6 months before the A15 and Apple usually uses very low clock speed. So dual Krait and quad A9 have nothing to be ashamed of.deltatux - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
Ummm... the A15 has a 128-bit wide NEON FPU engine like the Qualcomm S4 Krait... I think you're thinking of Cortex A8 and A9 which has the 64-bit FPU but can process 128-bit FPU instructions.mschira - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
Yea but where are the phones using a Krait?M.