 | |
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | September 7, 2016 |
| Discontinued | May 10, 2022 |
| Designed by | Apple Inc. |
| Common manufacturer | |
| Product code | APL1W24 |
| Max.CPUclock rate | to 2.34 GHz[2] |
| Cache | |
| L1cache | Per core: 64 KB instruction + 64 KB data |
| L2 cache | 3 MB shared |
| L3 cache | 4 MB shared |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Application | Mobile |
| Technology node | 14 nm (16FFC) |
| Microarchitecture | "Hurricane" and "Zephyr" |
| Instruction set | ARMv8.1-A:A64,A32,T32 |
| Physical specifications | |
| Transistors |
|
| Cores |
|
| GPUs | CustomPowerVR Series 7XT GT7600 Plus (hexa-core, internal name - Apple G9)[3][4] |
| Products, models, variants | |
| Variant | |
| History | |
| Predecessors | Apple A9 (iPhone) Apple A9X (iPad) |
| Successor | Apple A11 Bionic |
TheApple A10 Fusion is a64-bitARM-basedsystem on a chip (SoC) designed byApple Inc., part of theApple silicon series, and manufactured byTSMC. It first appeared in theiPhone 7 and 7 Plus which were introduced on September 7, 2016,[5][6] and is used in thesixth generation iPad,seventh generation iPad, andseventh generation iPod Touch. The A10 is the first Apple-designed quad-core SoC, with two high-performance cores and two energy-efficient cores. Apple states that it has 40% greater CPU performance and 50% greater graphics performance compared to its predecessor, theApple A9. TheApple T2 chip is based on the A10.[7] On May 10, 2022, theiPod Touch 7th generation was discontinued, ending production of A10 Fusion chips.[8] The latest software updates for theiPhone 7 & 7 Plus including theiPod Touch 7th generation variants systems using this chip areiOS 15.8.3, released on July 29, 2024, as they were discontinued with the release ofiOS 16 in 2022, while updates for the iPad7th generation variant systems using this chip are still supported.
The A10 (internally, T8010) is built on TSMC's 16 nmFinFET process[1][9] and contains 3.28 billion transistors (including the GPU and caches) on a die size of 125 mm2.[10] It features two Apple-designed 64-bit 2.34 GHzARMv8-A cores calledHurricane, each with a die size of 4.18 mm2. As the first Apple-produced quad-core SoC, it has two high-performance cores designed for demanding tasks like gaming, while also featuring two energy-efficient Apple-designed 64-bit 1.05 GHz cores codenamedZephyr at 0.78 mm2[10][11] for normal tasks in a configuration similar to theARM big.LITTLE technology.[12][13]
Unlike most implementations of big.LITTLE, such as the Snapdragon 820 or Exynos 8890, only one core type can be active at a time, either the high-performance or low-power cores, but not both.[2][12] Thus, the A10 Fusion appears to software and benchmarks as a dual core chip. Apple claims that the high-performance cores are 40% faster than Apple's previous A9 processor and that the two high-efficiency cores consume 20% of the power of the high performance Hurricane cores;[14] they are used when performing simple tasks, such as checking email. A new performance controller decides in real-time which pair of cores should run for a given task in order to optimize for performance or battery life. The A10 has anL1 cache of 64 KB for data and 64 KB for instructions, anL2 cache of 3 MB[15] shared by both cores, and a 4 MB[15] L3 cache that services the entire SoC.
The new 6-core @ 900 MHz GPU built into the A10 chip is 50% faster while consuming 66% of the power of its A9 predecessor. Further analysis has suggested that Apple has kept the GT7600 used in Apple A9, but replaced portions of thePowerVR based GPU with its own proprietary designs.[3][16] These changes appear to be using lowerhalf-precision floating-point numbers, allowing for higher-performance and lower power consumption.
Embedded in the A10 is the M10motion coprocessor.[17] The A10 also includes a newimage processor which Apple says has twice the throughput of the prior image processor.[18]
The A10 has video codec encoding support forHEVC andH.264. It has decoding support for HEVC, H.264,MPEG‑4 Part 2, andMotion JPEG.[19]
The A10 is packaged in a new InFO packaging from TSMC which reduces the height of the package. In the same package there are also fourLPDDR4 RAM chips integrating 2 GB of RAM in the iPhone 7, the iPad 6th generation, and the iPod touch 7th generation, or 3 GB in the iPhone 7 Plus and the iPad 7th generation.
TheLinley Group notes Apple's "A10″ CPU cores, Hurricane and Zephyr, are quite a bit bigger than those of competing mobile chips.
| Preceded by | Apple A10 Fusion 2016 | Succeeded by |
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