The Apple A6 is a 32-bit

package on package Package on a package (PoP) is an integrated circuit packaging method to vertically combine ball grid array (BGA) packages for discrete logic and Semiconductor memory, memory. Two or more packages are installed atop each other, i.e. stacked, with a ...

(PoP)

system on a chip A system on a chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that combines most or all key components of a computer or Electronics, electronic system onto a single microchip. Typically, an SoC includes a central processing unit (CPU) with computer memory, ...

(SoC) designed by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

, part of the

Apple silicon Apple silicon is a series of system on a chip (SoC) and system in a package (SiP) processors designed by Apple Inc., mainly using the ARM architecture family, ARM architecture. They are used in nearly all of the company's devices including Mac ...

series. It was introduced on September 12, 2012, at the launch of the

iPhone 5 The iPhone 5 is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, 6th generation iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 4s, and preceding both the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. It was formally unveiled as part of ...

. Apple states that it is up to twice as fast and has up to twice the graphics power compared with its predecessor, the

Apple A5 The Apple A5 is a 32-bit system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series, and manufactured by Samsung. The first product Apple featured an A5 in was the iPad 2. Apple claimed during their media event on March 2, 2 ...

. Software updates for devices using this chip ceased in 2019, with the release of iOS 10.3.4 on the iPhone 5 as it was discontinued with the release of

iOS 11 iOS 11 is the iOS version history, eleventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., Apple, being the successor to iOS 10. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 5, 2017, and w ...

in 2017.

Design

The Apple A6 is said to use a 1.3 GHz custom Apple-designed ARMv7-A architecture based dual-core CPU, called Swift, rather than a licensed CPU from ARM like in previous designs, and an integrated 266 MHz triple-core PowerVR SGX543MP3

graphics processing unit A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal ...

(GPU). The Swift core in the A6 uses a new tweaked instruction set featuring some elements of the ARM Cortex-A15 such as support for the Advanced SIMD v2, and VFPv4. Analysis suggests that the Swift core has a triple-wide frontend and two FPUs, compared with a two-wide core with a single FPU in the Cortex-A9 based predecessor. The A6 processor package also incorporates 1 GB of LPDDR2-1066 RAM compared with 512MB of LPDDR2-800 RAM in the

providing double the memory capacity while increasing the theoretical memory bandwidth from 6.4 GB/s to 8.5 GB/s. The A6 includes an upgraded image signal processor (ISP), that compared with the ISP in the A5, improves the speed of image capture, low-light performance, noise reduction, and video stabilization. The A6 is manufactured by Samsung on a high-κ

metal gate A metal gate, in the context of a lateral metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) stack, is the gate electrode separated by an oxide from the transistor's channel – the gate material is made from a metal. In most MOS transistors since about the mid- ...

(HKMG) 32 nm process and the chip is 96.71 mm² large, which is 22% smaller than the A5. The A6 also consumes less energy than its predecessor. A version of the A6 with higher frequency and four graphic cores is called Apple A6X and is found only in the fourth generation iPad.

Products that include the Apple A6

iPhone 5C The iPhone 5c is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the sixth generation of the iPhone. The device was unveiled on September 10, 2013, and released on September 20, 2013, along with its higher-end counte ...

Gallery

References

{{Application ARM-based chips Products introduced in 2012 Products and services discontinued in 2017 Computer-related introductions in 2012 Apple silicon

Design

Products that include the Apple A6

Gallery

See also

References