Apple A12
 | |
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | September 12, 2018 |
| Discontinued | present |
| Designed by | Apple Inc. |
| Common manufacturer | |
| Product code | APL1W81[2] |
| Max. CPU clock rate | to 2.49 GHz[3] |
| 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 | ARMv8‑A-Compatible |
| Instruction set | A64 |
| Physical specifications | |
| Cores | |
| GPU | Apple-designed 4 core[4][6] |
| Products, models, variants | |
| Variant | |
| History | |
| Predecessor | Apple A11 Bionic |
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, XS Max, XR, and 2019 versions of the iPad Air and iPad Mini.[7][5] It has two high-performance cores which are claimed to be 15% faster and 50% more energy-efficient than the Apple A11 and four high-efficiency cores which are claimed to use 50% less power than the energy-efficient cores in the A11.[7][6]
Design
The A12 features an Apple-designed 64-bit ARMv8.3-A six-core CPU, with two high-performance cores running at 2.49 GHz called Vortex 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 Mistral cores, the Tempest cores are based on Apple's Swift cores from the Apple A6.[8]
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."[9] 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.[10]
The A12 is manufactured by TSMC[1] using a 7 nm[5] FinFET process, the first to ship in a consumer product,[4][1] and it contains 6.9 billion transistors.[1] The die size of the A12 is 83.27 mm2, 5% smaller than the A11.[11] It is manufactured in a package on package (PoP) together with 4 GiB of LPDDR4X memory in the iPhone XS[2] and XS Max[11] and 3 GB of LPDDR4X memory in the iPhone XR, the iPad Air (2019), and the iPad mini (2019).[12] 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.[13]
| 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
See also
- Apple-designed processors, the range of ARM-based mobile processors designed by Apple for their consumer electronic devices
- Apple A12X Bionic
References
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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. "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.
- ^ Frumusanu, Andrei. "The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets". AnandTech. Retrieved February 2, 2019.