Apple A5

Apple A5 is the brand name of four different system-on -a- chip used by Apple in multiple iOS devices. They are all manufactured by Samsung. The A5 chips combine an ARM main processor type Cortex A9 with a PowerVR graphics processor, and also take over the functions of a conventional PC chipset. Often called Apple A5 or A5X alone is used for the ARM processor, but this is not correct. The A5 is one of the S5L SoCs.

The first A5 chip was introduced in March 2011 as part of the iPad 2. This option is in addition to the iPad 2 from just the iPhone 4s. Further revisions were installed in the following Apple devices.

Predecessor of the A5 is the Apple A4, successor is the Apple A6.

Technology

There are four different revisions of the A5 chip. Each revision has 32 ​​KiB data and instruction cache 32 KiB, added still 1024 KiB Level 2 cache. All A5 chips dominate the ARMv7 instruction set.

A5

The Apple A5 is present in three different versions, which were presented between March 2011 and early 2013. It is used in the following products:

• IPad 2 ( 2011): first version (45 nm S5L8940 )
• IPad 2.4 (2012 ): Revision A (32 nm S5L8942 )
• IPhone 4s (2011): first version (45 nm S5L8940 )
• Apple TV 3 (2012 ): Revision A (32 nm S5L8942 ), a core disabled
• IPod Touch 5G ( 2012): Revision A (32 nm S5L8942 )
• IPad Mini ( 2012): Revision A (32 nm S5L8942 )
• Apple TV 3 Rev A ( 2013): Revision B (32 nm S5L8947 )
• IPad 3 (2012 ): A5X (45 nm S5L8945 )

A5 ( first version )

The first A5 chip S5L8940 was presented on 2 March 2011 as part of the iPad 2. It has 512 MB ​​SDRAM memory and two ARM Cortex A9 cores. The clock frequency is variable and is adjusted by the requirements of the iOS device. The core clock of the ARM Cortex A9 is normally 1.2 GHz, but has been reduced from Apple. Thus, the standard clock both cores in the iPad 2 amounts to 1 GHz, the iPhone 4s to 800 MHz. Benchmarks show a performance improvement of at least 56 % compared to the clocked at 1GHz A4 also SoC in the iPad first generation. The first A5 is manufactured in a 45 nm process. Due to the second core it is 10.1 mm larger than the A4 (7.3 × 7.3 mm ) with 12.1 ×. As a PowerVR SGX graphics processor 543MP2 comes with two processor cores from Imagination Technologies used. These have a core clock of 200 MHz.

A5 Revision A

The A5 Revision A S5L8942 was presented with the 3rd generation Apple TV on March 7, 2012. It differs only little from the first A5, with the exception that the A5 Rev A is manufactured in 32- nm process. Thus, the surface area decreases by about 40 % to 69 mm2 and the power consumption is reduced. In the 3rd generation Apple TV a Cortex- A9 processor core has been disabled in A5 Rev A. In addition to the Apple TV 3rd generation also use the iPad mini, the iPod touch 5th generation and the introduced in April 2012 iPad 2.4 A5 Rev A. In tests of the page Anandtech S5L8942 resulted in the iPad 2.4 15-30 % longer battery life.

A5 Revision B

The A5 Revision B S5L8947 was introduced in early 2013 with the Apple TV 3G Revision A. The A5 Rev B is the only A5 chip only one processor core and no SDRAM memory. Reason for the introduction was a cheaper manufacturing process, since the audit - a-chip used until then had two processor cores, but from which the ATV 3G a core was not required and thus deactivated. He is also manufactured in 32nm process and has dimensions of 6 x 6 mm.

A5X

The A5X S5L8945 chip occurs only in the 3rd generation iPad. He was presented with this in spring 2012. The A5X is prepared as the first A5 in 45 - nm process. However, he uses 1024 MB of SDRAM memory and a GPU here comes the PowerVR SGX graphics chip 543MP4 used, which has four also clocked with 200 MHz processor cores. According to Apple provides this against the 543MP2 used in the A5 double the graphics performance. Due to the increased heat the housing of the processor for better heat radiation had to be made ​​of metal. The dimensions of the chip amount to 12.82 mm × 12.71 mm, giving an area of ​​162.94 mm2.