Details on Apple's A6 powering the iPhone 5

[Love Divine]

Any real details on the Apple A6 chipset? Knowing Apple, it may be quite a beast. Is it A9 still? or A15?

With the iPhone 5 now going through the full unveiling process, Phil Schiller took the stage to confirm that Apple is indeed making use of the Apple A6 chipset in the new device. There was plenty of rumors surrounding the next-generation hardware and whether or not the A6 would be a part of it but now, it's for certain.

As noted during the keynote, the Apple A6 is 22 percent smaller than previous generation chipsets such as the A5X and maintains twice the graphics power as well. In addition to those changes, the new Apple A6 should help with battery ife as well. Apple claims 8 hours of battery life on the iPhone while browsing over LTE with 225 hours of stand-by time being made available.

Also with the addition of the Apple A6, further advancements throughout the OS are now possible. Camera images can be captured up to 40 percent faster, video stabilization has been improved and due to the power of the Apple A6, you can now snap images while recording video. Overall, some great additions that we can't wait to see in action. Especially, that battery life on LTE.

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

If it really does double the CPU performance it would need to be A15. The only way to really double CPU performance on a dual-core is an architecture change. To double it, but stay on the same architecture, you would either need to double the number of cores of double the clockspeed. Not really a surprise since it's widely known that Samsung does most of the grunt work on the chip.

The GPU performance is easy, they probably used a multi-core version of the PowerVR SGX544.

 

[Love Divine]

It appears they've gone the Qualcomm route... Apple's own ARM design. Can't wait to see what's discovered when people get their hands on em in a week.

AnandTech - The iPhone 5's A6 SoC: Not A15 or A9, a Custom Apple Core Instead

 

[patruns]

Why is this in the Android hardware forum?

 

[Kevin OQuinn]

Because it'll have an impact on Android Hardware in the future. The iPhone has always been the target for smoothness and performance. They might not make it a big deal, but Apple plays the spec war with the best of em.

I bet less people argue about how Qualcomm makes their chips now, too.