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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tipoo - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
No, just look at Apples history to know what they mean. When they say 2x faster they mean 200% as fast.menting - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
wow..what a history of misleading then. Their engineers must hate their PR department.if one day they say " it is 100% faster!!!", then it really means it's not any faster.
Lucian Armasu - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
That's not how you do it. No one says "1x faster". That expression just doesn't exist - in any language. It's "2x faster".I think you're confusing it with saying "the old chip has HALF its performance, therefore the new one is 100% faster, or 2x faster". I don't really know what you meant, but what you're saying makes no sense.
lukarak - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
Actually, you should say two times as fast, not two times faster.mavere - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
But if the number is 4 or 5, saying "4 times faster" or "5 times faster" would be well understood is day-to-day language.Using "twice" is more a matter of being succinct.
mavere - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
in*menting - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
it's not. Definitely not in high school or higher level mathematics or engineering related work.mavere - Thursday, September 13, 2012 - link
I can walk into any engineering course at my alma mater or my local high school and talk about things being "two times faster" or "three times faster" and every one would be exactly on the same page.menting - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
exactlymenting - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 - link
why would you think "1X faster" does not exist? Does "100% faster" not exist? 100% is exactly 1.0, which is 1X.if the old chip has HALF its performance, the new one would be "100% faster", or "2X as fast", definitely not 2X faster.
I think you're getting yourself confused with the definition