Apple A12

Last updated

Apple A12 Bionic
Apple A12.jpg
General information
LaunchedSeptember 12, 2018;6 years ago (2018-09-12)
DiscontinuedOctober 18, 2022;22 months ago (2022-10-18)
Designed by Apple Inc.
Common manufacturer
Product codeAPL1W81 [2]
Max. CPU clock rate to 2.49 [3]  GHz
Cache
L1 cache 128 KB instruction, 128 KB data
L2 cache8 MB
Architecture and classification
ApplicationMobile
Technology node 7 nm [4] [5] (N7) [6]
Microarchitecture "Vortex" and "Tempest"
Instruction set A64 – ARMv8.3-A
Physical specifications
Transistors
  • 6.9 billion
Cores
GPU Apple-designed 4 core "Apple G11P" [4] [7]
Products, models, variants
Variant
  • Apple S4/S5 SiP (cut-down version that utilizes high efficiency cores from A12)
    Apple A12X/A12Z (more advanced version of A12 in iPad Pro and Developer Transition Kit
History
Predecessor Apple A11 Bionic
Successor Apple A13 Bionic

The Apple A12 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series, [8] 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). [8] [5] Apple states that the two high-performance cores are 15% faster and 40% more energy-efficient than the Apple A11's, and the four high-efficiency cores use 50% less power than the A11's. [8] [7] It is the first mass-market system on a chip to be built using the 7 nm process. [9]

Contents

Design

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. [10]

The A12 also integrates an Apple-designed four-core graphics processing unit (GPU) with 50% faster graphics performance than the A11. [4] [8] The A12 includes dedicated neural network hardware that Apple calls a "Next-generation Neural Engine." [11] This neural network hardware has eight cores [7] 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. [12]

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. [13] It is manufactured in a package on package (PoP) together with 4 GiB of LPDDR4X memory in the iPhone XS [2] and XS Max [13] and 3 GB of LPDDR4X memory in the iPhone XR, the iPad Air (2019), the 5th generation iPad mini, and the iPad (2020). [14] 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. [15]

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. [16]

Die Block Comparison (mm²) [17]
SoCA12 (7 nm)A11 (10 nm)
Total Die83.2787.66
Big Core2.072.68
Small Core0.430.53
CPU Complex (incl. cores)11.9014.48
GPU Core3.234.43
GPU Total14.8815.28
NPU5.791.83

Products that include the Apple A12 Bionic

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple A9</span> System on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc.

The Apple A9 is a 64-bit ARM-based system-on-chip (SoC)designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. Manufactured for Apple by both TSMC and Samsung, it first appeared in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus which were introduced on September 9, 2015. Apple states that it has 70% more CPU performance and 90% more graphics performance compared to its predecessor, the Apple A8. On September 12, 2018, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus along with the first-generation iPhone SE was discontinued, ending production of A9 chips. The latest software updates for the iPhone 6s & 6s Plus including the iPhone SE variants systems using this chip are iOS 15.8.3, released around August, 2024, as they were discontinued with the release of iOS 16 in 2022, and for the iPad using this chip was iPadOS 16.7.10, also released on September 3, 2024, as it was discontinued with the release of iPadOS 17 in 2023.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple A11</span> System on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc.

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iPhone XS 2018 twelfth-generation high-end smartphone by Apple Inc.

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iPhone XR 2018 12th-generation smartphone by Apple Inc.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple A12X</span> System on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc.

The Apple A12X Bionic is a 64-bit system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series, It first appeared in the iPad Pro, announced on October 30, 2018. The A12X is an 8-core variant of the A12 and Apple states that it has 35 percent faster single-core CPU performance and 90 percent faster overall CPU performance than its predecessor, the Apple A10X. The Apple A12Z Bionic is an updated version of the A12X, adding an additional GPU core, and was unveiled on March 18, 2020, as part of the iPad Pro.

iPad Mini (5th generation) Tablet computer made by Apple (2019–2021)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple A13</span> System on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc.

The Apple A13 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC), designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. It appears in the iPhone 11, 11 Pro/Pro Max, the 9th generation iPad, the iPhone SE and the Studio Display. Apple states that the two high performance cores are 20% faster with 30% lower power consumption than the Apple A12's, and the four high efficiency cores are 20% faster with 30% lower power consumption than the A12's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple A14</span> System on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc.

The Apple A14 Bionic is a 64-bit ARMv8.4-A system on a chip (SoC)designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. It appears in the fourth generation iPad Air and tenth generation iPad, as well as iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Apple states that the central processing unit (CPU) performs up to 40% faster than the A12, while the graphics processing unit (GPU) is up to 30% faster than the A12. It also includes a 16-core neural engine and new machine learning matrix accelerators that perform twice and ten times as fast, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple A15</span> System on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc.

The Apple A15 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. It is used in the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, iPad Mini, iPhone SE, iPhone 14 and 14 Plus and Apple TV 4K.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple A16</span> System on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc.

The Apple A16 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series, and manufactured by TSMC. It is used in iPhones 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, and 15 and 15 Plus.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Summers, Nick (September 12, 2018). "Apple's A12 Bionic is the first 7-nanometer smartphone chip". Engadget . Archived from the original on September 13, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  2. 1 2 "iPhone XS and XS Max Teardown". iFixit. September 21, 2018. Archived from the original on December 2, 2019. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
  3. ↑ "iPhone XS Benchmarks - Geekbench Browser". Geekbench. Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Smith, Ryan (September 12, 2018). "Apple Announces the 2018 iPhones: iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, & iPhone XR". AnandTech . Archived from the original on September 13, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max bring the best and biggest displays to iPhone" (Press release). Apple. September 12, 2018. Archived from the original on April 27, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  6. ↑ "The Apple iPhone 11, 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max Review: Performance, Battery, & Camera Elevated".
  7. 1 2 3 4 "A12 Bionic". Apple. September 12, 2018. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Apple introduces iPhone XR" (Press release). Apple. September 12, 2018. Archived from the original on March 27, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  9. ↑ Shankland, Stephen. "Apple's A12 Bionic CPU for the new iPhone XS is ahead of the industry moving to 7nm chip manufacturing tech". CNET. Archived from the original on September 16, 2018. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  10. ↑ Frumusanu, Andrei. "The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets". AnandTech . Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  11. ↑ "iPhone XS - Technical Specification". Apple Inc. September 12, 2018. Archived from the original on January 4, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  12. ↑ Frumusanu, Andrei (October 5, 2018). "The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets". AnandTech . Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
  13. 1 2 Yang, Daniel; Wegner, Stacy (September 21, 2018). "Apple iPhone Xs Max Teardown". TechInsights. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019. Retrieved September 21, 2018.
  14. ↑ "iPhone XR Teardown". iFixit. October 26, 2018. Archived from the original on March 21, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
  15. ↑ Levin, Jonathan (September 15, 2018). "iPhone Xs, Xr... And, one more thing..." NewOSXBook.com. Archived from the original on October 10, 2018. Retrieved September 15, 2018.
  16. ↑ "iPhone XS - Technical Specifications". support.apple.com. Archived from the original on October 24, 2021. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
  17. ↑ Frumusanu, Andrei. "The iPhone XS & XS Max Review: Unveiling the Silicon Secrets". AnandTech . Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
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