Apple A12
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General information | |
---|---|
Launched | September 12, 2018 |
Designed by | Apple Inc. |
Common manufacturer(s) | |
Product code | APL1W81[2] |
Max. CPU clock rate | to 2.49[3] GHz |
Cache | |
L1 cache | 128 KB instruction, 128 KB data |
L2 cache | 8 MB |
Architecture and classification | |
Application | Mobile |
Technology node | 7 nm[4][5] |
Microarchitecture | "Vortex" and "Tempest" |
Instruction set | Aarch64; ARMv8.3-A |
Physical specifications | |
Transistors |
|
Cores |
|
GPU(s) | Apple-designed 4 core "Apple G11P"[4][6] |
Products, models, variants | |
Variant(s) | |
History | |
Predecessor | Apple A11 |
Successor | Apple A13 |
The Apple A12 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc.[7] It first appeared in the iPhone XS and XS Max, iPhone XR, iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Mini (5th generation), 8th generation iPad and Apple TV 4K (2nd generation).[7][5] Apple states that the two high-performance cores are 15% faster and 50% more energy-efficient than the Apple A11's, and the four high-efficiency cores use 50% less power than the A11's.[7][6] It is the first mass-market system on a chip to be built on the 7 nm node.[8]
Design[edit]
The Apple A12 SoC features an Apple-designed 64-bit ARMv8.3-A six-core CPU, with two high-performance cores called Vortex, running at 2.49 GHz, and four energy-efficient cores called Tempest.[4][5] The Vortex cores are a 7-wide decode out-of-order superscalar design, while the Tempest cores are a 3-wide decode out-of-order superscalar design. Like the A11's Mistral cores, the Tempest cores are based on Apple's Swift cores from the Apple A6.[9]
The A12 also integrates an Apple-designed four-core graphics processing unit (GPU) with 50% faster graphics performance than the A11.[4][7] The A12 includes dedicated neural network hardware that Apple calls a "Next-generation Neural Engine."[10] This neural network hardware has eight cores[6] and can perform up to 5 trillion 8-bit operations per second.[4][5] Unlike the A11's Neural Engine, third-party apps can access the A12's Neural Engine.[11]
The A12 is manufactured by TSMC[1] using a 7 nm[5] FinFET process, the first to ship in a consumer product,[4][1] containing 6.9 billion transistors.[1] The die size of the A12 is 83.27 mm2, 5% smaller than the A11.[12] It is manufactured in a package on package (PoP) together with 4 GiB of LPDDR4X memory in the iPhone XS[2] and XS Max[12] and 3 GB of LPDDR4X memory in the iPhone XR, the iPad Air (2019), the 5th generation iPad mini, and the iPad (2020).[13] The ARMv8.3 instruction set it supports brings a significant security improvement in the form of pointer authentication, which mitigates exploitation techniques such as those involving memory corruption, Jump-Oriented-Programming, and Return-Oriented-Programming.[14]
The A12 has video codec encoding support for HEVC and H.264. It has decoding support for HEVC, H.264, MPEG‑4 Part 2, and Motion JPEG.[15]
SoC | A12 (7 nm) | A11 (10 nm) |
---|---|---|
Total Die | 83.27 | 87.66 |
Big Core | 2.07 | 2.68 |
Small Core | 0.43 | 0.53 |
CPU Complex (incl. cores) | 11.90 | 14.48 |
GPU Core | 3.23 | 4.43 |
GPU Total | 14.88 | 15.28 |
NPU | 5.79 | 1.83 |
Products that include the Apple A12 Bionic[edit]
- iPhone XS and XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPad Mini (5th generation)
- iPad Air (3rd generation)
- iPad (8th generation)
- Apple TV 4K (2nd generation)
Gallery[edit]
See also[edit]
- Apple silicon, the range of ARM-based processors designed by Apple
- Apple A12X Bionic
- Apple A12Z
- Comparison of ARMv8-A cores
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d Summers, Nick (September 12, 2018). "Apple's A12 Bionic is the first 7-nanometer smartphone chip". Engadget. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
- ^ a b "iPhone XS and XS Max Teardown". iFixit. September 21, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
- ^ "iPhone XS Benchmarks - Geekbench Browser". Geekbench. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g Smith, Ryan (September 12, 2018). "Apple Announces the 2018 iPhones: iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, & iPhone XR". AnandTech. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e "iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max bring the best and biggest displays to iPhone" (Press release). Apple. September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
- ^ a b c d "A12 Bionic". Apple. September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
- ^ a b c d "Apple introduces iPhone XR" (Press release). Apple. September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
- ^ Shankland, Stephen. "Apple's A12 Bionic CPU for the new iPhone XS is ahead of the industry moving to 7nm chip manufacturing tech". CNET. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
- ^ Frumusanu, Andrei. "The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets". AnandTech. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
- ^ "iPhone XS - Technical Specification". Apple Inc. September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
- ^ Frumusanu, Andrei (October 5, 2018). "The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets". AnandTech. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
- ^ a b Yang, Daniel; Wegner, Stacy (September 21, 2018). "Apple iPhone Xs Max Teardown". TechInsights. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
- ^ "iPhone XR Teardown". iFixit. October 26, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
- ^ Levin, Jonathan (September 15, 2018). "iPhone Xs, Xr... And, one more thing..." NewOSXBook.com. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
- ^ "iPhone XS - Technical Specifications". support.apple.com. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
- ^ Frumusanu, Andrei. "The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets". AnandTech. Retrieved February 2, 2019.