Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Apple A6

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Designed by
  
Apple Inc.

Max. CPU clock rate
  
1.3 GHz

Instruction set
  
ARM, Thumb-2

Common manufacturer(s)
  
Samsung

Min. feature size
  
32 nm

Apple A6

Produced
  
From September 21, 2012 to September 9, 2015

The Apple A6 is a 32-bit package on package (PoP) system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. that was introduced on September 12, 2012 at the launch of the iPhone 5. 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.

Contents

Design

The Apple A6 is said to use a 1.3 GHz custom Apple-designed ARMv7-A based dual-core CPU, called Swift, rather than a licensed CPU from ARM like in previous designs, and an integrated 266 MHz triple-core PowerVR SGX543MP3 graphics processing unit (GPU). The Swift core in the A6 uses a new tweaked instruction set featuring some elements of the ARM Cortex-A15 such as support for the Advanced SIMD v2, and VFPv4. 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.

The A6 processor package also incorporates 1 GB of LPDDR2-1066 RAM compared to 512MB of LPDDR2-800 RAM in the Apple A5 providing double the memory capacity while increasing the theoretical memory bandwidth from 6.4 GB/s to 8.5 GB/s. The A6 includes an upgraded image signal processor (ISP), that compared to the ISP in the A5, improves the speed of image capture, low-light performance, noise reduction, and video stabilization.

The A6 is manufactured by Samsung on a High-κ metal gate (HKMG) 32 nm process and the chip is 96.71 mm2 large, which is 22% smaller than the A5. The A6 also consumes less energy than its predecessor.

A version of the A6 with higher frequency and four graphic cores is called Apple A6X and is found only in the fourth generation iPad.

Products that include the Apple A6

The Apple A6 chip is only used in iPhones, and not in iPads or any generation of iPod touch, iPad minis, or Apple TVs.

  • iPhone 5
  • iPhone 5C
  • References

    Apple A6 Wikipedia