iPad's custom Apple A4 processor includes ARM-based CPU, GPU

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Details of Apple's custom-built processor inside the newly unveiled iPad are beginning to surface, with a report stating the system-on-a-chip includes an ARM Cortex-A9-based CPU accompanied by a GPU.



According to Bright Side of News, the Apple A4 is based mostly on intellectual property from ARM reference designs. The new, custom chip from Apple, through its purchase of fabless chip designer P.A. Semi, includes the Cortex-A9 MPCore (identical to the processor in the nVidia Tegra and Qualcomm Snapdragon), a ARM Mali 50-series GPU, and a memory controller all on one die.



"The A stands obviously for Apple, and the difference between the Samsung processor inside the iPhone 3Gs and A4 is the clockspeed and the core type," the report said. "A4 runs at 1GHz while the chip on iPhone 3GS works clocked to 0,6GHz. This is one of main reasons why iPad can deliver a lively interface compared to stale iPhone one."



Reference designs for the Cortex-A9 call for either two or four cores. The architecture is the successor to the ARM Cortex-A8 upon which the 600MHz iPhone 3GS is based.



As noted in AppleInsider's hands-on impressions with the new iPad, the next-generation processor even makes Apple's speedy iPhone 3GS seem a little slow. It's possible that the new iPhone model, expected to be introduced this year, could also sport a custom Apple-built chip.



Bright Side of News allegedly learned that Apple and P.A. Semi were contracting with ARM when they spoke with the company's CEO, Warren East, during the Global Foundries event in Las Vegas. As first reported by AppleInsider in 2008, Apple has been a licensee of the ARM architecture for years. Apple purchased P.A. Semi for $278 million in 2008.



Pictured in Apple's iPad video presentation, the new A4 processor was manufactured in September of 2009. Previous rumors have alleged that the processor is likely designed in-house, but manufactured by Samsung.







Apple claims the power efficiency of the chip will allow the iPad to offer users 10 hours of battery life in use, and over a month of standby.



"iPad is powered by our own custom silicon. We have an incredible group that does custom silicon at Apple," company co-founder Steve Jobs said during Wednesday's keynote. "We have a chip called A4, which is our most advanced chip we've ever done that powers the iPad. It's got the processor, the graphics, the I/O, the memory controller -- everything in this one chip, and it screams."







«13456710

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 198
    So...this A4 chip is a multicore processor?
  • Reply 2 of 198
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rogzilla View Post


    So...this A4 chip is a multicore processor?



    Yes. It's a multi-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU similar to that of NVIDIA Tegra 2



    That's quoting THIS site.
  • Reply 3 of 198
    Is this an assumption? I don't see any empirical data to back up the idea that Apple didn't modify the processor or GPU.
  • Reply 4 of 198
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Rogzilla View Post


    So...this A4 chip is a multicore processor?



    Yes, and it can multitask.



    http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM...A9_MPCore.html



    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/App...rtex,9528.html





    http://www.slashgear.com/apple-ipad-...ailed-2871865/



    Just need to wait for the OS to catch up with the hardwares capabilities.
  • Reply 5 of 198
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    I wonder if we'll see an iMac or MacBook running on an ARM chip in the next 10 years.
  • Reply 6 of 198
    multicore iphone
  • Reply 7 of 198
    zandroszandros Posts: 537member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    According to Bright Side of News, the Apple A4 is based mostly on intellectual property from ARM reference designs. The new, custom chip from Apple, through its purchase of fabless chip designer P.A. Semi, includes the Cortex-A9 MPCore (identical to the processor in the nVidia Tegra and Qualcomm Snapdragon), a ARM Mali 50-series GPU, and a memory controller all on one die.



    Fact check please? Just because BSN didn't bother to be precise doesn't mean you should. Nvidia's Tegra uses ARM11 cores (however, Tegra 2 uses dual Cortex A9s) and the Snapdragon isn't powered by A9 either.



    Furthermore, A9 doesn't necessarily have to implemented in multicore configurations. Surely Apple would have mentioned that the iPad was multicore in its tech specs?
  • Reply 8 of 198
    Steve Jobs also said that their software guys worked with the chip designers. Maybe GCD (Grand Central Dispatch) related hardware features or special support for parts of OS X that the software guys discovered to be slow in profiling their code. There are lots of interesting things they could be doing with custom extensions to the ARM instruction set that a normal CPU vendor wouldn't be able to do. GCD is part of Apple's power efficiency strategy, so special scheduling support in the CPU might be interesting.
  • Reply 9 of 198
    The big question I have is whether or not the A4 (or a variant) will also be able to be used in a future iPhone and/or iPod Touch...



    A combined CPU/GPU chip could lead to even more powerful and energy efficient devices that will make it even harder for competitive devices to keep up....
  • Reply 10 of 198
    mactelmactel Posts: 1,275member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by esummers View Post


    Steve Jobs also said that their software guys worked with the chip designers. Maybe GCD (Grand Central Dispatch) related hardware features or special support for parts of OS X that the software guys discovered to be slow in profiling their code. There are lots of interesting things they could be doing with custom extensions to the ARM instruction set that a normal CPU vendor wouldn't be able to do. GCD is part of Apple's power efficiency strategy, so special scheduling support in the CPU might be interesting.



    I'm thinking more of OpenCL stuff.
  • Reply 11 of 198
    Sure Apple hasn't come out with the UI for multitasking yet, but there's also how much RAM the iPad has (for actually running applications, not for storage). That's what is killing jailbroken iPhones from effectively running multiple apps at once, namely the limited amount of RAM. The 3GS has greatly help, by having double the amount of RAM from the previous models.



    Anybody know how much the iPad has?
  • Reply 12 of 198
    pmzpmz Posts: 3,433member
    Whatever it is, Apple making it themselves will translate into a better experience for the user. Whether it has incredible power/energy consumption ratio, or it simply optimized to take advantage of mobile OSX better than any other chip, you can bet they've chosen this as the greater of several options.



    Amazing though that their first product of this kind is seen in this new device. Can't wait to revision b
  • Reply 13 of 198
    cmf2cmf2 Posts: 1,427member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Zandros View Post


    Fact check please? Just because BSN didn't bother to be precise doesn't mean you should. Nvidia's Tegra uses ARM11 cores (however, Tegra 2 uses dual Cortex A9s) and the Snapdragon isn't powered by A9 either.



    Furthermore, A9 doesn't necessarily have to implemented in multicore configurations. Surely Apple would have mentioned that the iPad was multicore in its tech specs?



    When I first heard A4, I hoped that the "4" stood for the number of cores. I haven't heard any better explanations (unless the A1, A2, and A3 went through some sort of preliminary design before the A4 was created). I don't think it's a given that Apple would explicitly state how many cores it has. They haven't discussed the specs of the iPhone; when the 3GS came out they just said it was faster. Apple told us about the A4 because they made it, that's all. They probably want us to think these run on Apple designed fairy dust or something.
  • Reply 14 of 198
    hokhok Posts: 10member
    The A4 has 4 core, could it be more obvious ?
  • Reply 15 of 198
    eaieai Posts: 417member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sidste View Post


    Yes, and it can multitask.



    http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM...A9_MPCore.html



    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/App...rtex,9528.html





    http://www.slashgear.com/apple-ipad-...ailed-2871865/



    Just need to wait for the OS to catch up with the hardwares capabilities.



    Of course it can, we've been using single core processors for the last 20 years that can multi-task.
  • Reply 16 of 198
    patspats Posts: 112member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by troehl View Post


    The big question I have is whether or not the A4 (or a variant) will also be able to be used in a future iPhone and/or iPod Touch...



    A combined CPU/GPU chip could lead to even more powerful and energy efficient devices that will make it even harder for competitive devices to keep up....



    The Iphone/Ipod touch already contain a SOC with a CPU/GPU. It is ARM Cortex A8 and the Power VR 540 GPU. The new A4 probably is an ARM Cortex A9 with Power VR GPU I doubt Apple is using MALI when they get great performance from the PowerVR GPU and PowerVR supports OpenCL. The article is so full of factual errors, that it is obvious that they are guessing like everyone else. As far as seeing an A4 in the iphone/itouch. You can bet on it with the next version. The upfront design cost of a modern SOC means you need to build a bunch to make it worthwhile.
  • Reply 17 of 198
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sidste View Post


    Just need to wait for the OS to catch up with the hardwares capabilities.



    It ain't going to happen because multitasking on mobile devices simply don't make sense and there is NO logical argument to support that it does.



    Considering how quickly you can change apps multi tasking is just a crap idea made by people who don't understand portable devices.



    The design of OS X ensures that multitasking isn't needed so there's no reason to add it. I mean how many apps do you NEED to run on a portable device at one time?
  • Reply 18 of 198
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lowededwookie View Post


    It ain't going to happen because multitasking on mobile devices simply don't make sense and there is NO logical argument to support that it does.



    Considering how quickly you can change apps multi tasking is just a crap idea made by people who don't understand portable devices.



    The design of OS X ensures that multitasking isn't needed so there's no reason to add it. I mean how many apps do you NEED to run on a portable device at one time?



    C'mon dudes-

    OSX (from the biggest Mac down to the smallest iphone) supports multitasking. This is a kernel property that *all* OS X variants (Mac OS and iPhone OS) share.



    What Apple is not allowing you to do is run multiple *3rd Party Apps* concurrently. You most certainly *can* multitask on an iPhone (ever make a call and look at a map at the same time?) The kernel in the OS supports multitasking just fine.



    What is limiting you is the *user interface* (e.g., Mac Finder version iPhone UI). Battery life has long been listed as the primary reason for no multi-3rd-pary-app execution in the iPhone, but I suspect that the amount of available memory is a bigger reason for this.



    One question I have: does the CPU circuitry included in iPhones (and, presumably, iPads) support demand-paged memory management (or something similar like segmentation)? I don't know the answer to that question. And if the answer is no, then it would be *rather difficult* to allow multitasking (something along the lines of the kludge in WinCE might be possible, but that's ugly to say the least).



    Perhaps the reason Apple only multi-tasks their apps and prevents 3rd parties from doing so is because of the memory-management issues. I don't know if this is true or completely off base, but it is a guess. Perhaps someone has some knowledge and can enlighten me?
  • Reply 19 of 198
    svnippsvnipp Posts: 430member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lowededwookie View Post


    It ain't going to happen because multitasking on mobile devices simply don't make sense and there is NO logical argument to support that it does.



    Considering how quickly you can change apps multi tasking is just a crap idea made by people who don't understand portable devices.



    The design of OS X ensures that multitasking isn't needed so there's no reason to add it. I mean how many apps do you NEED to run on a portable device at one time?



    At least two that I can think of off the top of my head. For instance, I can't tell you how often I would like to continue listening to Pandora while checking my e-mail or playing solitaire or a tower defense game. The iPad takes this even a step further. If I were say listening to a radio program and wanted to take some notes in Pages. These are just a couple examples of things that I would be doing on a regular basis.
  • Reply 20 of 198
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lowededwookie View Post


    It ain't going to happen because multitasking on mobile devices simply don't make sense and there is NO logical argument to support that it does.



    You've obviously never wanted to browse the net whilst listening to Spotify or received a text whilst playing geoDefense.



    Have you seen how elegantly WebOS handles multitasking?
Sign In or Register to comment.