In this article, we explain about the history of apple processors in-detail. Apple always finds the perfect connection between software and hardware. It is one of the advantages it has over other manufacturers since it is capable of creating both the operating system and the specific hardware that your devices need. This combination makes Apple products virtually impossible to match in performance.
Table of Contents
Specifications For Processors Designed By Apple
APL0098
The first processor designed by Apple was destined to be the brain of the device that would change everything: the iPhone. Although Apple also included it in the iPod Touch. The APL0098 appeared in 2007 and was manufactured by Samsung in 90 nanometers, it was only 16 bits and had a single core at a frequency of 412 MHz. PowerVR from Imagination Technologies was in charge of the GPU, which it would do for several years.
APL0278
The second Apple processor was used in the second-generation iPod Touch released in 2008, Apple used the APL0098 in the iPhone 3G. Samsung and Apple managed to lower the nm to 65 and the processor had a frequency of 533 MHz and a single core.
APL0298
Introduced in 2009 together with the iPhone 3GS, it used the Cortex-A8 cores in its only core that had a frequency of 600 MHz. The manufacturing process was still 65 nanometers and 32 bits reached the iPhone for the first time.
APL2298
This processor is a revised version of the previous one that Apple included in a new batch of iPhone 3GS and in a new iPod Touch. The main difference with respect to APL0298 is that the nanometers were lowered from 65 to 45.
Processor A4
We come to the birth of Apple’s A processor saga that took place in 2010. The company had already realized the importance of processors and the A4 chip was a sample of this. This processor debuted with the original iPad and was also introduced in the iPhone 4, the fourth-generation iPod Touch, and the Apple TV 2.
Apple managed to reach a frequency of 1 GHz with this processor for the first time, that yes in the version for the iPad. The A4 of the iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch stayed at 800 MHz. AGAIN, it is a one-core ARM Cortex-A8 processor manufactured in 45 nm.
A5 and A5X processors
With the following evolution of its processors, Apple decided to distinguish, at least in terms of name, the iPhone processor and the iPad. The model for the Apple tablet now had the letter “X” to identify it and was again more powerful.
The A5 processor, which appeared in 2011, was the first from Apple to have two cores working at the same time and using ARM Cortex-A9 technology. In the case of the iPhone 4s, the processor had a frequency of 800 MHz and was built with 45 nm architecture. Apple used an enhanced 32nm version for the iPad 2, iPod Touch 5, iPad mini, and the third-generation Apple TV.
A6 and A6X processors
We come to 2012, a year in which the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and the fourth generation of iPad hit the market. This dual-core processor reduced its size to 32 nm, which allowed a 22% savings in consumption. The two ARM Cortex-A15 cores named by Apple Swift were clocked at 1.3 GHz.
