 Apple A8 processor | |
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | September 9, 2014 |
| Discontinued | October 18, 2022 |
| Designed by | Apple Inc. |
| Common manufacturer | |
| Product code | APL1011[2] |
| Performance | |
| Max.CPUclock rate | 1.1 GHz (iPod Touch (6th generation)) to 1.4 GHz (iPhone 6,iPhone 6 Plus) and 1.5 GHz (iPad mini 4 &Apple TV (4th Gen))[3] |
| Cache | |
| L1cache | Per core: 64 KB instruction + 64 KB data[4] |
| L2 cache | 1 MB shared[4] |
| L3 cache | 4 MB[4] |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Application | Mobile |
| Technology node | 22 nm (20SOC)[5] |
| Microarchitecture | Typhoon[6][7] |
| Instruction set | ARMv8-A:[4]A64,A32,T32 |
| Physical specifications | |
| Transistors |
|
| Cores |
|
| GPU | CustomPowerVR Series 6XT (quad-core)[9][10] |
| Products, models, variants | |
| Variant | |
| History | |
| Predecessor | Apple A7 |
| Successor | Apple A9 |
TheApple A8 is a64-bitARM-basedsystem on a chip (SoC) designed byApple Inc., part of theApple silicon series. It first appeared in theiPhone 6 andiPhone 6 Plus, which were introduced on September 9, 2014.[11] Apple states that it has 25% more CPU performance and 50% more graphics performance while drawing only 50% of the power of its predecessor, theApple A7. The latest software updates for the 1.1GHz and 1.4GHz variants systems using this chip areiOS 12.5.7, released on January 23, 2023 as they were discontinued with the release ofiOS 13 in 2019,[12] and 1.5 GHz variant for theiPad Mini 4 isiPadOS 15.8.4, released on March 31, 2025 as it was discontinued with the release ofiPadOS 16 in 2022, while updates for the 1.5 GHz variant continue forApple TV HD, with the current release oftvOS 26, it is the oldest supported Apple SoC. The A8 chip was discontinued on October 18, 2022, following the discontinuation of the Apple TV HD.[13]
The A8 is manufactured on a20 nm process[5] byTSMC,[1] which replacedSamsung as the manufacturer of Apple's mobile device processors. It contains 2 billion transistors. Despite having twice the number of transistors of the A7, the A8's physical size has been reduced by 13% to 89 mm2 (0.138 in2).[8] The A8 uses LPDDR3-1333 RAM on a 64-bit memory interface; in the iPhone 6/6 Plus, sixth generationiPod Touch, andHomePod, the A8 has 1 GB RAM included in the package.[2] Meanwhile, the A8 in the iPad Mini 4 and 4th generation Apple TV is packaged with 2 GB RAM.[14][15]
The A8 CPU has a per-coreL1 cache of 64 KB for data and 64 KB for instructions, an L2 cache of 1 MB shared by both CPU cores, and a 4 MB L3 cache that services the entire SoC.[4] As its predecessor, it has a 6 decode, 6 issue, 9 wide,out-of-order design.The processor is dual core, and as used in the iPhone 6 has a frequency of 1.4 GHz, supporting Apple's claim of it being 25% faster than theA7.[16] It also supports the notion of this being a second generation[17] enhanced Cyclone core calledTyphoon,[6][7] and not an entirely new architecture which would supposedly mean a more significant performance gain per Hz.[4]
The A8 also integrates agraphics processing unit (GPU) which is a 4-shader-clusterPowerVR Series 6XT.[18] However the GPU features custom shader cores designed by Apple.[10]
On October 16, 2014, Apple introduced a variant of the A8, theA8X, in theiPad Air 2. Compared with the A8, the A8X has an enhanced 8-shader-cluster GPU and improved CPU performance due to one extra core and higher frequency.
The A8 has video codec encoding support forH.264. It has decoding support for H.264,MPEG‑4, andMotion JPEG.[19]
The A8'sbranch predictor has been claimed to infringe on a 1998 patent.[20][21] On October 14, 2015, a district judge found Apple guilty of infringing U.S. patentUS 5781752 , "Table based data speculation circuit for parallel processing computer", on the Apple A7 and A8 processors.[21] The patent is owned byWisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), a firm affiliated with theUniversity of Wisconsin. On July 24, 2017, Apple was ordered to pay WARF $506 million for patent infringement. Apple filed an appellate brief on October 26, 2017, with theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, that argued that Apple did not infringe on the patent owned by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.[22] On September 28, 2018, the ruling was overturned on appeal and the award thrown out by the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.[23] The patent expired in December 2016.[24]
| Preceded by Apple A7 (APL0698 Variant) | Apple A8 2014 | Succeeded by |