The Apple A10 Fusion Features Tighter Packaging, Die Utilization And Improved Libraries

Talking about overall design and product approach, Apple's non a subtle company. Cupertino's known for its unorthodox marketing strategies. Subtle upgrades on its products are showcased in striking ways that have worked out quite well for the company. With the iPhone 7 and iPhone seven Plus we saw a similar approach. The pair's processor in particular received a overnice addition to its name. The A10 'Fusion' as Apple's calling it features four cores on lath. It'southward the first time that Apple's fabricated the big architectural leap. Folks over at Chipworks have carried out a detailed assay of the processor. Permit'due south take a look to see what they've discovered.

The Apple tree A10 Fusion Features Unique Core Integration And Improved Component Integration

With the A10 Fusion, Apple tree finally made the leap to quad core processors. Cupertino's e'er been miserly when it comes to processor cores, choosing to rely on its hardware and software integration instead. But, every bit applications and games become more advanced, the company was bound to make the move sooner or afterwards. The A10 Fusion is hither and now we get to see what the processor comes with under the hood.

For starters, its manufactured on the same 16nm FinFET process past TSMC. If yous're thinking that the A10 is the same processor as the A9, y'all're mistaken. Autonomously from adding 2 new processor cores, Apple's likewise paid special attending to the processors overall design. The A10 Fusion on the iPhone 7 has a die size of 125mm^ii. The A9 in contrast had die sizes of 96 and 102.5mm^ii for Samsung and TSMC'southward offerings.

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In terms of blueprint terms, the A10 resembles the A8 more than its directly predecessor. The chip features tighter die utilization, which results in improved operation not based on gate scaling. The track libraries for the processor are standard 16nm FinFET and stand at seven.5 and 9 tracks. They've also been tightly integrated, which results in the performance improvements which were claimed past Apple this month.

The surface area of the A10 is lesser than what you'd have extrapolated using previous sizes for the company'southward mobile processors. As nosotros've mentioned above, the SoC'southward also the outset from Cupertino to characteristic four cores on mobile. These have proven to be rather difficult to discern individually. While the two larger cores are hands visible (as you can see in the image below), the smaller ones take been integrated next to the larger ones.

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The rumor manufactory often proves to be on point when it comes to features and specifications of upcoming devices. The iPhone vii and iPhone vii Plus were no exceptions to this rule. An interesting tip which we were the kickoff to report was TSMC's InFO making it on board the processor. Via InFO, the contact area betwixt the CPU and die is decreased significantly. This reduces current lost inside the chip and results in two benefits. First, it reduces thickness and 2nd it improves ability consumption and performance.

Through Integrated Fan Out, the use of substrate betwixt Logic and Package I/Os is eliminated completely. For the uninitiated, the chips are placed on a reconstituted wafer, which reduces chip thickness considerably. This also results in meaning cost reductions when compared to flip fries which use organic substrates. While the final verdict on InFO volition be out only once the iPhone seven has had its time to settle in the market, the process does expect promising.

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The Apple tree A10 Fusion also features a vi core GPU, which we're sure is manufactured by Imagination Technologies. Cupertino's always used custom iterations of the visitor'due south GPUs for the A series of processors. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus also claim to offer pregnant improvements in graphics performance over their predecessors. Benchmarks suggest no change in L1 and L2 cache sizes for the iPhone either.

That marks the terminate of our coverage of the Apple A10 Fusion. Apple claims that its new processor features 40% CPU and fifty% GPU performance increases over the A9. We'll simply know these for sure once consistent benchmarks and other tests have been carried out on the iPhone 7 and iPhone vii Plus. Hardware is an area where Cupertino has upped its game significantly since the A8X. The A10 Fusion looks to fall in that line likewise. Thoughts? Let u.s.a. know what yous think in the comments section below and stay tuned for the latest.