Apple's new A6 iPhone 5 appears to be first ARM Cortex A15 phone - Page 3

Krait is an in-house custom design that happens to be ISA compatible with the A15 (ARM V7a). In terms of performance it is closer to the A15 than the A9.

 

iPhone 4S used dual-core 800MHz Cortex A9s. The iPhone 5 could use dual-core ~1.2GHz Cortex A15s, or dual-core ~1.6GHz A9s, or quad-core ~1GHz A9s to achieve the performance increase suggested in the keynote.

that's stupid. we are talking about different architectures. a 1.2GHz cortex A15 is much faster than a 1.6 A9.

Well, if history is any guide, Apple's phones will continue to offer the best performance regardless of paper specs. Apple understood long ago that what matters to customers is how the device performs - not what arbitrary spec it happens to meet.

 

The Kraits are between the A9 and A15.  Just like the scorpions were between the A8 and A9 architectures.  That's just how qualcomm likes to roll with the Snapdragons...being a half step ahead or behind the rest of the ARM pack.  As with the scorpions vs A9s the true A15 designs will be faster than the Kraits.  But as you say, Qualcomm had an advantage of a few months and has been eating quad-core A9's (like the Tegra 3) lunch...but they still aren't actual A15s.

 

If the A6 really is A15 based then Qualcomm's time advantage is much shorter than I think most folks expected.  On the other hand the A6 is only going to get Apple design wins so Qualcomm doesn't really care in that regard.  The OMAP5 and Exynos 5250s are still not here yet

You are spouting complete nonsense.  Samsung hired Intrinsity to help them with development of the Hummingbird SOC.  Samsung announced the hummingbird nearly a year prior to Apple introducing the iPhone 4 which had the A4 chip in it.  Xrays revealed the A4 was essentially a hummingbird with minor modifications, most notably it had half the RAM.  So Apple was using a Samsung design, one presumes under license, with some modifications to it.  Apple didn't buy Intrinsity until after they had done their work on the Hummingbird.

Since then, Apple has developed the A5 and Samsung has developed their own Exynos line of processors.

Samsung announced Exynos processors for tablet computers containig A15 cores back on Nov 30, 2011.  A world first.  They didn't copy anything from Apple.  Back in August, they announced the Exynos 5 Dual: 1.7GHz Cortex-A15 dual-core, WQXGA resolution, Mali-T604 GPU SOC.  Again, their own work, not Apples.

The next thing we will be reading from a fanboy is that Apple taught Intel everything they know about designing chips and that all PC's are running on chips designed by Apple.  Saying Apple know more about chip design and manufacture than Samsung is equally ludicrous.
 

Solipsism has it right.  Apple could not beat Samsung to designing or introducing an A15 based SOC.

The A15 is 3.5 DMIPS/Mhz, while the A9 is 2.5 DMIPS/Mhz. The A15 is about 40% more powerful then the A9, so a 1.2Ghz A15 would be roughly as fast as a 1.68Ghz A9.

Atleast the US version does... Qualcomm "Krait" is a similar architecture as A15. This chip is on a few phones.

I think it's a very solid upgrade. I love the 4/4s design and this takes it a step further. Faster processor, faster internet, and good battery life. The surprise factor was gone because we all saw the leaks, but I wasn't expecting some new radical form factor. The iphone 5 looks awesome!

For those who disagree, that's fine. Just be happy with whatever phone you have because I'll certainly be happy with mine.

Krait is not A15. It's a custom core designed by Qualcomm that is not based on the A15. It may perform similarly to the A15, but I don't think that is generally known yet. 

It will be interesting to compare the performance of the Krait to the A15. 

I find it hard to give a shit about any of this.  The important question is, "will the processor be fast enough to run everything I want to quickly and smoothly"?  If the answer to that is yes, it's fast enough, if the answer to that is no, it's too slow.

The specs mean nothing.  It's user experience that counts, and Apple seems to consistently get that right.

It may not be an A15, but my money is on it being a different architecture than the A5 series which used the A9 processor.

Apple typically follows a logical naming convention. On phones, the 3G and 3GS were the same generation (defined by 3G support), and the 4 signified a new generation that included the 4S (defined by retina display). Likewise, the 5 and future 5S(?) are a new generation (defined by LTE and bigger display).

On chips, the A4 series used the A8 architecture.
The A5 and A5X series used the A9 architecture. Apple didn't change the architecture but merely boosted performance on the A5X, and this didn't call it the A6.

If it was only a marketing thing, Apple would have called the A5X the A6, as that's what people were hoping for, and then called this chip the A7.. Similarly, they could have called the 4S the 5, as that's what people were hoping for (and it was technically the 5th iPhone).

Apple is very specific on its naming conventions, and this is the biggest piece of evidence.

So it's either the A15 or a custom architecture similar to the Krait, though likely under clocked as that's Apple's MO.

I only care about performance, but this is relevant because Android fanatics always like to claim Apple releases outdated tech (despite the new iPhone/iPad always besting it's competition in benchmarks upon release and continuing till about 6-8 months later).

THe article brought Krait into the discussion. It mentions krait in the same paragraph that it talks about the UPCOMING chips from Sammy and Ti. 

 

And there can only be two reasons for that:

 

1. They are too ideologically challenged to face the facts, or

 

2. They are paid astroturfers for Google or Samsung or whoever else.

You're missing the third option:

3. Both of the above.

If it was true, dont you think Apple, who likes to boast about "first" all the time, would prominently lay it on their marketing materials?

 

Therefore, I highly doubt this is to be true.

 

However, if the contrary serves to be correct, then it most likely used Samsung's Exynos 5250 Dual Core A15) chip sets as the models for the production of the A6's.

 

Samsung said that they were sampling their latest A15 chips to a "few" customers.

This should have really been the 666 phone with it being the 6th gen, A6 processor, and with iOS6, but I guess they didn't want to over sell the whole 2012 end of the world thing and all ;)

1) They can't say Cortex-A15 because they've never used any Cortex in their A-chips. They grab an ARM reference design that is before ARM's marketed Cortex products in much the same way Apple released any Intel Centrino products because Apple never adopted Intel's WiFI solutions which is part of Centrino.

2) When has Apple ever boosted about a 3rd-party CPU vendor for their iDevices? They say it's an A-chip because they designed it. They say they put a lot of work into it. They've said the speed of the iPad before. They certainly won't be saying it's Cortex, even without considering that it's not Cortex, but Cortex-based.

 

That name is already taken:-

 

http://xxxx.com.au

 

P.S. not recommended for drinking unless you like dog p*ss.

 

"Shipping" not selling, although I do believe "delivered" is their latest term.

 

http://mashable.com/2012/09/06/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-sales/

 

Maybe Apple have a good relationship with the company they founded with Acorn, a little company called ARM.

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Edited by MacRulez - 1/21/13 at 3:09pm