Apple A6 SoC 'confirmed' to leverage 1GB of RAM

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Slides of Apple's A6 chip presented at the company's iPhone 5 debut event on Wednesday reveal the processor likely holds 1GB of RAM, double the amount found in the legacy iPhone 4 and 4S handsets.

As noted by AnandTech, the unobscured parts numbers seen on the chip point to a Samsung DRAM component which boasts 1GB of addressable RAM.

A6 Memory
Apple's A6 processor with Samsung DRAM package part number highlighted. | Source: Apple


The part number emblazoned on the A6 is K3PE7E700F-XGC2 which, according to Samsung's 2012 product guide is a package-stacked DRAM module. This is in line with Apple's A-series SoCs, which implement a package-on-package design to save space.

Breaking down the part number, "K3P" points to a dual-channel LPDDR2 package with 32-bit channels, while the "E7E7" designation denotes the 512MB density of each DRAM die, which comes out to a total of 1GB of RAM. Finally, the "C2" yields the part's 1066MHz cycle time/data rate.

The publication notes the new package should give the A6 a 33 percent boost in peak memory bandwidth compared to the iPhone 4S.

It was recently speculated that the new A6 processor could hold the company's first custom-designed CPU core, a departure from previous A-series SoCs which relied solely on ARM's patented technology.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 84
    Cool! What's it mean performance wise?
  • Reply 2 of 84
    ...but this information is already in Samsung's print ad.
  • Reply 3 of 84
    Insane. 1GB can run Windows XP on a Netbook.
  • Reply 4 of 84
    iqatedoiqatedo Posts: 1,822member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mac-user View Post



    ...but this information is already on Samsung's print ad.


    How are the Samscum trolls going to work their way into this discussion? (Rhetorical question!)

  • Reply 5 of 84
    iqatedoiqatedo Posts: 1,822member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post



    Insane. 1GB can run Windows XP on a Netbook.


    ...but not android on an siii!

  • Reply 6 of 84


    Isn't that interesting, Samsung's out there publishing undisclosed spec's for a competitor product that hasn't shipped yet. Did they just breach an NDA, did the supposed chinese wall between departments leak? How did their marketing department have this info ready?

  • Reply 7 of 84

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by IQatEdo View Post


    How are the Samscum trolls going to work their way into this discussion? (Rhetorical question!)



    Samsung can't speak evil of the iPhone, about product quality. That's why they compared only specs and features in their ad ...but forgot about the NDA. Anyone surprised?

  • Reply 8 of 84


  • Reply 9 of 84


    Well doesn't the Samsung Galaxy sIII have one gig or ram?  It would only make sense to make an iPhone with an A6 processor and give it at the least 1 GB of RAM. Without that the phone would have performance issues.

  • Reply 10 of 84

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tylerk36 View Post


    Well doesn't the Samsung Galaxy sIII have one gig or ram?  It would only make sense to make an iPhone with an A6 processor and give it at the least 1 GB of RAM. Without that the phone would have performance issues.



     


    Samsung is claiming they have 2 GB of RAM, but then there is so much inefficiency in the Android OS that they need more RAM to operate more sluggishly than the tight iOS/hardware fit. That's why specs don't mean squat when comparing anything to the Apple iDevices. 

  • Reply 11 of 84
    But the S III already has 2 GB of RAM, so that must make it twice as good as the iPhone 5. And the S III already has a quad-core processor, so that makes it two times better than the iPhone 5's dual-core. No wonder all the tech-pundits claim that the iPhone 5 is a year behind the times. And the S III's display is almost twice as big as the iPhone 5s display. Boy, Apple is sure going to have a hard time selling those iPhone 5s.

    /s
  • Reply 12 of 84
    tylerk36 wrote: »
    Well doesn't the Samsung Galaxy sIII have one gig or ram?  It would only make sense to make an iPhone with an A6 processor and give it at the least 1 GB of RAM. Without that the phone would have performance issues.

    Yes, the international version does only have 1GB. There is also another model that is even heavier, too.
  • Reply 13 of 84
    People GrowUP!, I use Macs for years, they had great OS, great apps, but lately things aren't so Bright, NOT on Mac OS X neither on iOS, Apple are loosing big time on the Hardware, and Apple Software is missing essencial things and not revolutionary as ads say.

    This kind of ads comparison, are just are making Apple ridiculous and this is and will hurt the iPhone sales.

    Another bad sales point on iOS is that Apple mostly thinks on USA market, Siri flagship is not even translated into several spoken language some of them have more native speakers in the World than English!!

    Android 4, is not what Android 2 was, you can keep bragging and just say, mine is better, always better, but that is not realistic, because sometimes we loose, and Apple is loosing! Of course to be a winner, we have to fight back, making it better, not just sueing!
  • Reply 14 of 84

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Macky the Macky View Post


     


    Samsung is claiming they have 2 GB of RAM, but then there is so much inefficiency in the Android OS that they need more RAM to operate more sluggishly than the tight iOS/hardware fit. That's why specs don't mean squat when comparing anything to the Apple iDevices. 



    Android is, indeed, just a bloated mess.


    But if you run around the Internet a little bit, you'll find that loads of people complain about inconsistencies with the reported RAM size on Android devices quite frequently.


     


    Take my Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, for example:


     



     


    This device is advertised as having 1GB of RAM - yet I only have 687MB to play with. Is it wired to the Android System?


    If it is, why limit the operating system to 337MB of RAM?


    Why is there a clear memory button? Is Android's memory management that poor it needs user intervention?


    Even after clearing the memory, 387MB of RAM was still in use!


    So 337MB locked to some unknown entity and 387MB of RAM is wired to background services (which, according to the application manager, should only take up a few kilobytes each and in no way totals 300+MB)


    A device advertised with 1GB of RAM has a grand total of 300MB available to user applications.


     


    My iPad 2 has 512MB of RAM in total of which 502MB is available to the end user. If you remove the wired memory, thats 361MB available to user applications. Half the installed ram of the Samsung yet I have more memory to play with.


     



     


    </rant>

  • Reply 15 of 84

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tylerk36 View Post


    Well doesn't the Samsung Galaxy sIII have one gig or ram?  It would only make sense to make an iPhone with an A6 processor and give it at the least 1 GB of RAM. Without that the phone would have performance issues.



    I'm sure there is not a single or collective entity other than Apple who would know the answer to how much RAM, processor speed (or any other design criteria) their phones need, since they design the entire puzzle from the ground up.  That's what makes it special.


    Much like when they worked with IBM and PPC chips.


     


    But all that design work falls on deaf ears for the Pentium/Galaxy crowd.  Let them have their "customizable" phones and PCs.  


     


    I don't mind jailbreaking mine to get what I find lacking, and the other millions people who keep them stock are obviously happy with vanilla iOS or they wouldn't keep buying iPhones/iPads/iPods.  Though not being 100% perfect Apple gets it closest for sure.  Honestly I JB for what AT&T lacks anyhow....so I can say that for me Apple does get it right.

  • Reply 16 of 84

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SaltWater View Post



    People GrowUP!, I use Macs for years, they had great OS, great apps, but lately things aren't so Bright, NOT on Mac OS X neither on iOS, Apple are loosing big time on the Hardware, and Apple Software is missing essencial things and not revolutionary as ads say.

    This kind of ads comparison, are just are making Apple ridiculous and this is and will hurt the iPhone sales.

    Another bad sales point on iOS is that Apple mostly thinks on USA market, Siri flagship is not even translated into several spoken language some of them have more native speakers in the World than English!!

    Android 4, is not what Android 2 was, you can keep bragging and just say, mine is better, always better, but that is not realistic, because sometimes we loose, and Apple is loosing! Of course to be a winner, we have to fight back, making it better, not just sueing!


    You're seriously faulting Apple for not having Siri in multiple languages yet?  They are (barely) on v1.0 in their native language.  As the mass migration from iPhone 4 to 5 takes place in the coming weeks, Siri will be learning a lot.  Hardly a fault when only the 4S has it stock.

  • Reply 17 of 84
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    postulant wrote: »
    Cool! What's it mean performance wise?

    Faster. Also less chance of background apps being flushed out of memory at random and having to reload.

    Good for gaming too as it can cache more and higher quality textures. It has double the memory of the main consoles now.

    It's sad to think though that because it's shared memory, it has more graphics memory than some of their Macs - they should really get on that.
  • Reply 18 of 84
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    But the S III already has 2 GB of RAM, so that must make it twice as good as the iPhone 5. And the S III already has a quad-core processor, so that makes it two times better than the iPhone 5's dual-core. No wonder all the tech-pundits claim that the iPhone 5 is a year behind the times. And the S III's display is almost twice as big as the iPhone 5s display. Boy, Apple is sure going to have a hard time selling those iPhone 5s.
    /s

    Let's see. Twice the RAM, twice the number of cores, and twice the screen size. That makes it EIGHT TIMES AS GOOD!!!
    solipsismx wrote: »
    Yes, the international version does only have 1GB. There is also another model that is even heavier, too.

    Yes, it's important to keep in mind Android fragmentation. Not only are there multiple different versions of Android on sale at any one time, and thousands of different phones, but you can't even tell what phone you're talking about if you know the name - because they offer multiple phones with the same name.
    saltwater wrote: »
    People GrowUP!, I use Macs for years, they had great OS, great apps, but lately things aren't so Bright, NOT on Mac OS X neither on iOS, Apple are loosing big time on the Hardware, and Apple Software is missing essencial things and not revolutionary as ads say.
    This kind of ads comparison, are just are making Apple ridiculous and this is and will hurt the iPhone sales.
    Another bad sales point on iOS is that Apple mostly thinks on USA market, Siri flagship is not even translated into several spoken language some of them have more native speakers in the World than English!!
    Android 4, is not what Android 2 was, you can keep bragging and just say, mine is better, always better, but that is not realistic, because sometimes we loose, and Apple is loosing! Of course to be a winner, we have to fight back, making it better, not just sueing!

    So what's the going rate for posting nonsense like that?
  • Reply 19 of 84
    lilgto64lilgto64 Posts: 1,147member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by makingdots View Post




     


    At first glance I thought the Galaxy has a bullet hole with cracks in the screen. 


     
  • Reply 20 of 84

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post





    Faster. Also less chance of background apps being flushed out of memory at random and having to reload.

    Good for gaming too as it can cache more and higher quality textures. It has double the memory of the main consoles now.

    It's sad to think though that because it's shared memory, it has more graphics memory than some of their Macs - they should really get on that.


    Graphics RAM isn't as important as you may think. Take a look at the PS3 - I've got Crysis 2, I play it in 3D in HD and it runs smooth as silk and looks absolutely stunning. Even though the RSX GPU in the PS3 only has 256MB of DDR3 memory it can achieve better performance than most 1GB Desktop Cards I've seen.


     


    Graphics RAM is (mostly) for the number of pixels a system can display at once. More GRAM means higher resolutions and/or multiple monitors. The power of the processor itself is far more important. Whats the point in RAM when you can't push the pixels?

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