Items tagged with A-9
As we've seen (and shared), Apple's custom A9 processor found in its recently launched iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus smartphones offers killer performance, especially considering it's a dual-core part. Interestingly, it appears that Apple is relying on two different chip manufacturers to build the A9 part.The folks at Chipworks claim to have found two different A9 chips, one belonging to Samsung (APL0898) and one belonging to TSMC (APL1022). That's a bit unusual for Apple, which typically prefers to source production of its application processors from a single manufacturer. What this suggests is that neither manufacturer is up to the task of supplying enough A9 chips to meet demand, lest Apple...
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Underneath the hood of Apple's new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models is a new custom designed System-on-Chip (SoC) that Apple has dubbed its A9 processor. It's a 64-bit chip that, according to Apple, is the most advanced ever built for any smartphone, and that's just one of many claims coming out of Cupertino.Apple is also claiming a level of gaming performance on par with dedicated game consoles and with a graphics engine that's 90 percent faster than the previous generation. For compute chores, Apple says the A9 chip improves overall CPU performance by up to 70 percent. These performance promises come without divulging too much about the physical makeup of the A9, though Apple did say it's...
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As much as Apple and Samsung don't like each other, they don't let those feelings get in the way of sound and mutually beneficial business decisions. Hence, Apple has reportedly tapped Samsung to once again produce custom ARM-based System-on-Chips (SoCs) for its next iPhone, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) sits on the sideline.According to Bloomberg and the people it spoke with who have "direct knowledge of the matter," Samsung will produce Apple's custom A9 processors at its Giheung fab in South Korea. GlobalFoundries, which entered into a strategic partnership with Samsung several years ago, will also fulfill a portion of Apple's A9 orders. The A9 parts will presumably be...
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Apple and Samsung will probably never be friends, and truth be told, the former doesn't even want to be business partners with the latter. Nevertheless, Apple isn't going to let its contempt for Samsung get in the way of a good business decision, and so it will again rely on the South Korean electronics giant to supply custom chips for its next iPhone, according to multiple reports.This is an ongoing arrangement between the two, though with each new generation of iPhone, there's always talk that Apple is trying to sever ties with Samsung. To an extent, it finally happened with the iPhone 6 -- Apple welcomed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to the fold and awarded the company the...
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Apple knows better than to cut off its nose to spite its face, as the saying goes, hence why it still contracts Samsung to build the custom System-on-Chips (SoCs) that end up in iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. Will that relationship continue between these two bitter rivals? It would appear so, based on comments made by Kim Ki-nam, present of Samsung's semiconductor business. Ki-nam told reporters that once Samsung begins to supply Apple with SoCs using its latest technology, profits "will improve positively," ZDNet reports. While that's not an outright confirmation that Samsung will have a hand in building Apple's custom A9 SoC based on its 14nm manufacturing process, it's about as close...
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Over the past seven months or so, NVIDIA has revealed a number of details regarding its upcoming mobile wonder-chip, codenamed Kal-El. According to information provided by NVIDIA dating all the way back to February, Kal-El was to be the world’s first mobile quad-core SoC, sporting an integrated 12-core GeForce GPU, with support for resolutions up to 2560x1600, and performance that’s roughly 5x that of the current Tegra 2. News out of NVIDIA today, however, reveals that Kal-El actually has 5 CPU cores, four high-performance cores for general processing duties a low-power “companion” core that’ll only be used for background tasks, active standby, and for...
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Earlier this year, Intel software VP Renee James caused a kerfluffle between himself and Microsoft when he claimed Microsoft's upcoming OS wouldn't support older x86 applications when running on an ARM processor. Microsoft, in response, called his characterization "factually inaccurate and unfortunately misleading." ...Except, apparently, it wasn't—at least, not as far as ARM/x86 compatibility were concerned. During a Q&A session this past week, Windows division President Steven Sinofsky clarified the relationship between the two architectures: We've been very clear since the very first CES demos and forward that the ARM product won't run any X86 applications... We built a great deal...
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When we've discussed Atom and Intel's long-term plans regarding MIDs and handheld devices, we've typically focused on the consumer experience. Intel has made no secret that it envisions a future in which next-generation Atom processors and SoCs power a diverse range of products in both consumer and business markets. What we haven't discussed, save for an occasional nod towards the competition Intel might face from ARM, is the impact Intel's push into the embedded market might have on the integrated device manufacturers (IDMs). Tech-On recently sat down with James Hogan, who helped found Tela Innovations and works in electronic design automation (EDA). The interview gives a different perspective...
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