Engineering:Apple A15

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Short description: System on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc.
Apple A15 Bionic
Apple A15.jpg
General Info
LaunchedSeptember 14, 2021
Designed byApple Inc.
Common manufacturer(s)
Product codeAPL1W07[1]
Max. CPU clock rateto 3.23 GHz[2]

(2.93 GHz in iPad Mini 6)[3] 

Cache
L2 cache12 MB (performance cores)
4 MB (efficient cores)
32 MB (system cache)
Architecture and classification
ApplicationMobile
Min. feature size5 nm
Microarchitecture"Avalanche" and "Blizzard"
Instruction setA64
Physical specifications
Transistors
  • 15 billion
Cores
  • 6 (4 efficiency, 2 performance)
GPU(s)Apple-designed 4- or 5- core GPU
Products, models, variants
Variant(s)Apple M2
History
PredecessorApple A14
SuccessorApple A16

The Apple A15 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. It is used in the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, iPad Mini (6th generation), iPhone SE (3rd generation) and iPhone 14 and 14 Plus.[4]

Design

The Apple A15 Bionic features an Apple-designed 64-bit six-core CPU implementing ARMv8 with two high-performance cores called Avalanche running @3,24GHz and four energy-efficient cores called Blizzard running @2,01GHz. Apple claims the A15 in the iPhones is 50% faster than the competition. Apple claims the A15 in the iPad Mini 6 is 40% faster than the A12.[5] An in-depth breakdown by Anandtech revealed that "compared to the A14, the new A15 increases the peak single-core frequency of the two-performance core cluster by 8%, now reaching up to 3240MHz compared to the 2998MHz of the previous generation. When both performance cores are active, their operating frequency goes up by 10%, both now running at 3180MHz compared to the previous generation’s 2890MHz".[6][7]

The A15 contains 15 billion transistors, a 27.1% increase from the A14's transistor count of 11.8 billion. It includes dedicated neural network hardware that Apple calls a new 16-core Neural Engine.[8] The Neural Engine can perform 15.8 trillion operations per second, faster than A14's 11 trillion operations per second (+ 43%).[8] The A15 also includes a new image processor (ISP) with improved computational photography capabilities.[9] Apple also boosted performance by doubling the system cache to 32MB.[10]

The A15 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.[11] Codecs VP8 and VP9 are also unofficially supported. The AV1 codec is not supported via hardware acceleration.[12]

A15 is manufactured by TSMC, reportedly on their second-generation 5 nm fabrication process, N5P.[13][14]

GPU

The A15 integrates an Apple-designed five-core GPU for the iPad mini (6th generation), iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, and iPhone 14 and 14 Plus. One GPU core is disabled in the iPhone SE (3rd generation), and iPhone 13 and 13 Mini, resulting in a four-core GPU for these models.[15] Apple claims the A15's five-core GPU is 50% faster than the competition. Apple claims the A15's four-core GPU is 30% faster than the competition.[5]

Products that include the Apple A15 Bionic

  • iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus - 5-core GPU
  • iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini - 4-core GPU
  • iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max - 5-core GPU
  • iPhone SE (3rd generation) - 4-core GPU
  • iPad mini (6th generation) - 5-core GPU; CPU underclocked to 2.92 GHz[3]

See also

  • Apple silicon, range of ARM-based processors designed by Apple for their products
  • Comparison of Armv8-A processors

References

  1. ↑ "What's inside the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Teardown?". https://www.techinsights.com/blog/teardown/apple-iphone-13-pro-teardown. 
  2. ↑ "IPhone 13 Pro Geekbench Score Reveals A15 Bionic Frequency Upgrade; CPU/GPU Again Tops | SPARROWS NEWS". 16 September 2021. https://sparrowsnews.com/2021/09/16/iphone-13-pro-geekbench-score/. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Underclocked: The A15 chip inside Apple's new iPad mini 6 is slower than in the iPhone 13". https://www.notebookcheck.net/Underclocked-The-A15-chip-inside-Apple-s-new-iPad-mini-6-is-slower-than-in-the-iPhone-13.562249.0.html. 
  4. ↑ "Apple A15 Bionic Powers iPhone 13 and iPad Mini". September 14, 2021. https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/ipad-iphone-13-a15-bionic. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Frumusanu, Andrei (September 14, 2021). "Apple Announces iPhone 13 Series: A15, New Cameras, New Screens". AnandTech. https://www.anandtech.com/show/16934/apple-announces-iphone-13-series. 
  6. ↑ "Apple's A15 Bionic announcements undersells improvements over A14" (in en). https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/10/05/apples-a15-bionic-announcements-undersells-improvements-over-a14. 
  7. ↑ Frumusanu, Andrei. "The Apple A15 SoC Performance Review: Faster & More Efficient". https://www.anandtech.com/show/16983/the-apple-a15-soc-performance-review-faster-more-efficient. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Shankland, Stephen (September 14, 2021). "Apple's A15 Bionic chip powers iPhone 13 with 15 billion transistors, new graphics and AI". CNET. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apples-a15-bionic-chip-powers-iphone-13-with-15-billion-transistors-new-graphics-and-ai/. 
  9. ↑ "Apple unveils iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max — more pro than ever before". https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/09/apple-unveils-iphone-13-pro-and-iphone-13-pro-max-more-pro-than-ever-before/. 
  10. ↑ "Apple unveils new a15 bionic soc". https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/327004-apple-unveils-new-a15-bionic-soc. 
  11. ↑ "iPhone 13 - Technical Specifications". https://support.apple.com/kb/SP851?locale=en_US. 
  12. ↑ "Apple A10 Fusion - Benchmark, Test und Technische Daten". https://comparisoncpu.com/cpu/compare/apple_a15_bionic-vs-apple_a10_fusion. 
  13. ↑ Hruska, Joel (September 15, 2021). "Apple Unveils New A15 Bionic SoC". ExtremeTech. https://www.extremetech.com/mobile/327004-apple-unveils-new-a15-bionic-soc. 
  14. ↑ Sohail, Omar (March 30, 2021). "Apple's A15 Bionic to Use TSMC's 'N5P' Process for the Upcoming iPhone 13 Series; Mass Production Could Start in May". Wccftech. https://wccftech.com/apple-a15-bionic-mass-production-may-use-tsmc-n5p-node/. 
  15. ↑ Espósito, Filipe (2021-09-15). "iPhone 13 Pro's A15 Bionic chip has more powerful GPU than regular iPhone 13" (in en-US). https://9to5mac.com/2021/09/14/iphone-13-pros-a15-bionic-chip-has-more-powerful-gpu-than-regular-iphone-13/. 
Preceded by
Apple A14 Bionic 		Apple A15 Bionic
2021 		Succeeded by
Apple A16 Bionic




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