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Apple A9X chipset: desktop performance inside a tablet class device

A

astilo

New member
View attachment 15303

The A9X CPU is 1.8x faster than Apple's fastest chipset so far - the A8X you can find in the [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]iPad Air 2[/FONT] - and the GPU is two times zippier. More importantly, it also has two times the memory bandwidth, and a two times faster storage support. The GPU is so powerful, that it allows you to edit three 4K streams at once.
Click to expand...

They also said, it is faster than 80% of the portable PCs that shipped in the last 12 months. That´s a very bold claim and I´m really impressed at the moment. Of course, I will verify that by myself as soon as the first serious benchmarks are available.
Anyway, considering how good already the A8X was, I believe that what they are claiming is absolutely reasonable:
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. T300FA vs iPad5,4 - Geekbench Browser
I can´t also wait to see the first chipworks job about the A9X and the A9 chips.
 
I was impressed as well. Lets see how Tim Cook does on his predictions this time. I think the iPad Pro was the star of the show and I will be first in line to get one in November. I may also get an iPhone 6s using the new Apple rental plan since Verizon no longer offers phone subsidies and my contract is up.

I still say that the A9 is Samsung 14nm and the A9x is TSMC FF+. I actually have money riding on this one!
 
Daniel Nenni said:
I still say that the A9 is Samsung 14nm and the A9x is TSMC FF+. I actually have money riding on this one!
Click to expand...
That´s a nice bet too. Another theory is that the A9 is 14LPE and the A9X 14LPP (or 16FF+). Of course, the A9X will probably get an higher clock frequency and probably also more cores than the A9, since the performance jump is just too big to be justified only by a different process technology (the node is the same) and/or a different manufacturer.
 
Size matters?

The GPU is so powerful, that it allows you to edit three 4K streams at once.
Click to expand...
Pricing from $799 for 32GB to $1076 for 128GB with LTE.
Click to expand...
The First 4K Movie You Can Download Is 160GB and Absolutely Breathtaking
160>128

And
12.9" screen 2732x2048 pixels
Click to expand...
? 4k?

thicker than the iPad air (6.9mm vs 6.1mm)
Click to expand...
big battery?

80% speed gain. Cool! So we use FINFET to boost the speed.

I like APPLE and I will continuously buy their products as guided by all my family members.
 
I doubt there will be a line for iPad Pros. It looks like a niche product. It's too expensive and too heavy for casual (consumption) use and too small for real creative work. Sure there will be people who might find it useful but not enough to form a line :)
 
Li Yisuo said:
The First 4K Movie You Can Download Is 160GB and Absolutely Breathtaking
160>128

And 12.9" screen 2732x2048 pixels? 4k?
Click to expand...
I think that watching ultra HD movies on a 12.9" screen is a bullshit anyway (you definitely need a proper tv to enjoy the show).
Apple doesn't follow standards unfortunately. Ultra HD alias 4K definition is 3840x2160, so the ipad Pro screen is not Ultra HD.
The other standard about 4K is 4096 pixels × 2160 lines (8.8 megapixels, aspect ratio 256:135) for 4K film projection.
They just mentioned the 4k video acquisition capabilities of the new Iphones, but where do you watch these videos is not their business :)
 
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astilo said:
They also said, it is faster than 80% of the portable PCs that shipped in the last 12 months. That´s a very bold claim and I´m really impressed at the moment. Of course, I will verify that by myself as soon as the first serious benchmarks are available.
Anyway, considering how good already the A8X was, I believe that what they are claiming is absolutely reasonable:
ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. T300FA vs iPad5,4 - Geekbench Browser
I can´t also wait to see the first chipworks job about the A9X and the A9 chips.
Click to expand...

Sorry if it's an obvious question (my first post), but is there any estimation on how the A9X would compare to an entry-level desktop CPU like the i3-4160?

I also watched the event and was a bit surprised at the "desktop class" statement. Not saying Tim was lying but I'm a bit skeptical really.
 
Well, until the first benchmarks are in, it is not easy (and fair) to say.
Just to give an idea in the meanwhile (here is the comparison between the i3-4160 and the previous generation A8X):
ASUS All Series vs iPad Air 2 - Geekbench Browser
So, if we do the simple math, a 1.8X boost vs the A8X should put the A9X definitely ahead of a desktop class entry level machine (a 3300 score for single-core and 8200 for the multi-core one).
 
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Thanks, exactly the kind of info I was looking for.

Yeah we can only speculate as to what they meant by a 1.8x increase (maybe they were only referring to performance in a specific kind of task, or the speed of a specific component), but this is what we can estimate for now.

I remain skeptical though, as an i3-4160 still needs a massive, active cooling solution to do what it does... ARM architecture is different of course but let's see.
 
The TSMC OIP Forum is next Thursday, we should know more then. At the previous TSMC Symposium I believe TSMC said that 16FF+ offers a 50% performance increase over TSMC 20nm. I'm sure Apple will offer other architectural improvements as well so a 1.8x improvement is certainly possible. That is assuming of course that the A9x is TSMC 16FF+ which of course I do.

11220906_10153547442592332_6750658078054349267_n.jpg
 
By this A* series performance trend, should we expect to see a full featured Apple's desktop or laptop using A9x or A10x sometimes next year?

Actually Microsoft guys showed up in the Apple event yesterday to demo their Office program probably already gave us enough hint.
 
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hist78 said:
By this A* series performance trend, should we expect to see a full featured Apple's desktop or laptop using A9x or A10x sometimes next year?

Actually Microsoft guys showed up in the Apple event yesterday to demo their Office program probably already give us enough hint.
Click to expand...

my bet would be yes, Apple will offer an iOS based Mac Book. Which is why they are talking about desktop class performance. An iOS based Mac Book is for people like me who use Apple products but still need a laptop.

I do know that Apple and TSMC are working on an Apple specific version of 16nm for next year. Hopefully that will get iOS onto my lap.
 
So, it looks like the iphone 6s and the plus version have got finally a ram upgrade, from 1GB to 2GB. Hopefully this not the 2x ram bandwidth increase Apple was talking about :)
We also know that the A9 chip is a 64bit dual core SoC clocked at 1.8Ghz.
Apple is claiming a 70% performance increase CPU side over the previous generation. Now, the A8 in the iphone 6 is clocked at 1.4Ghz.
If we simply assume the A9 is a tick of the A8, and pretty sure it is not the case, there is already a rough 30% increase in the performance due to the higher clock.
I guess this is a very key point. I want to be honest here, I do not really expect such a huge jump (70%), but if it is really confirmed, that's a tremendous ICP increase YtY (someone said SandyBridge?).
I believe it will be more something in the 40-50% range, making it still a very nice upgrade.
On the other hand, everything between 30-40%, would be a bit disappointing here, considering the 30% boost that is already coming from the frequency increase (made possible because of a better process technology node, 14nm Fet vs 20nm Planar).
Let's wait and see, we must only be patient for few days more after all.
 
Here we go folks, first real benchmark already out
View attachment 15399

More than 2400, simply insane. It is a 50% increase over the A8 SoC, CPU side.
Great job Apple

Edit
I just got a new geekbench report. The single core score is slightly lower in this case, around 2300 points (+43% over the A8), but still amazing:
View attachment 15400
 
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astilo said:
So, it looks like the iphone 6s and the plus version have got finally a ram upgrade, from 1GB to 2GB. Hopefully this not the 2x ram bandwidth increase Apple was talking about :)
We also know that the A9 chip is a 64bit dual core SoC clocked at 1.8Ghz.
Apple is claiming a 70% performance increase CPU side over the previous generation. Now, the A8 in the iphone 6 is clocked at 1.4Ghz.
If we simply assume the A9 is a tick of the A8, and pretty sure it is not the case, there is already a rough 30% increase in the performance due to the higher clock.
I guess this is a very key point. I want to be honest here, I do not really expect such a huge jump (70%), but if it is really confirmed, that's a tremendous ICP increase YtY (someone said SandyBridge?).
I believe it will be more something in the 40-50% range, making it still a very nice upgrade.
On the other hand, everything between 30-40%, would be a bit disappointing here, considering the 30% boost that is already coming from the frequency increase (made possible because of a better process technology node, 14nm Fet vs 20nm Planar).
Let's wait and see, we must only be patient for few days more after all.
Click to expand...

Both benchmarks are from the same lady who got their iPhone 6S+ a few days too early via AT&T. Likely the second benchmark is after the phone had been out of standby mode for some time, so throttling was kicking in.

I'm curious about the (vanilla) 6S, because of the lower res screen, so less memory BW, likely less CPU cycles wasted.
 
loekf said:
I'm curious about the (vanilla) 6S, because of the lower res screen, so less memory BW, likely less CPU cycles wasted.
Click to expand...
Sure, the lower resolution screen will affect the score of some benchmarks, moreover the graphic ones (but we can always look at the offscreen results).
Anyway, I can already tell you that for geekbench that has little or no effect. This bench test is really CPU specific.
 
Daniel Nenni said:
I was impressed as well. Lets see how Tim Cook does on his predictions this time. I think the iPad Pro was the star of the show and I will be first in line to get one in November. I may also get an iPhone 6s using the new Apple rental plan since Verizon no longer offers phone subsidies and my contract is up.

I still say that the A9 is Samsung 14nm and the A9x is TSMC FF+. I actually have money riding on this one!
Click to expand...

chipworks seems to think the A9 chip inside iPhone 6s is fabbed by Samsung. We will have to wait for die shots and metal layer shots.

Inside the iPhone 6s | Chipworks

"The APL0898 size fits with an 80% shrink on the A8, and seems to have 8 MB cache - and our first look leads us to believe that our sample is from Samsung."

But there is information now which leads us to believe that A9 inside iPhone 6S Plus might be TSMC made. the chip naming is APL1022.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+6s+Teardown/48170

Step 17 - Apple A9 APL0898 SoC + Samsung 2 GB LPDDR4 RAM (as denoted by the markings K3RG1G10BM-BGCH)

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+6s+Plus+Teardown/48171

Step 12 - Apple A9 APL1022 SoC + SK Hynix LPDDR4 RAM as denoted by the markings H9HKNNNBTUMUMR-NLH


 
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