Apple A5X

General information
Launched	March 16, 2012
Discontinued	October 23, 2012
Designed by	Apple Inc.
Common manufacturer	Samsung Electronics
Product code	S5L8945X[1]
Performance
Max.CPUclock rate	1 GHz
Cache
L1cache	32 KB instruction + 32 KB data[2]
L2 cache	1 MB[2]
Architecture and classification
Application	Mobile
Technology node	45 nm[3][4]
Microarchitecture	ARM Cortex-A9
Instruction set	ARMv7
Physical specifications
Cores	2
GPU	PowerVR SGX543MP4 (quad-core)[5]
Products, models, variants
Variant	Apple A5
History
Successor	Apple A6X

TheApple A5X is a 32-bitsystem on a chip (SoC) designed byApple Inc., part of theApple silicon series, and manufactured bySamsung. It was introduced with and only used in thethird-generation iPad, on March 7, 2012. The A5X is a high-performance variant of theApple A5. Apple claimed the quad-corePowerVR SGX543MP4graphics processing unit (GPU) in the A5X is two times faster than the GPU in the A5, as the A5X GPU contains two more cores than the dual-core version GPU in the A5.^[6]

The last operating system update Apple provided for a mobile device containing an A5X (third-generation iPad cellular models) wasiOS 9.3.6, which was released on July 22, 2019 as it was discontinued with the release ofiOS 10 in 2016.

Apple designed the A5X chip specifically for the third-generation iPad to provide the additional graphical performance it required for its newRetina display. The A5X chip features a dual-core 45 nmARM Cortex-A9 CPU^[2] with aclock rate of 1 GHz,^[7] and a quad-core 32 nmPowerVR SGX543MP4 GPU^[5] with a clock rate of 250 MHz. Compared to the A5, the memory interface of the A5X is twice the size. The A5X memory interface subsystem utilizes four 32 bits wideLPDDR2 memory controllers.^[5]

Unlike theApple A4 and the A5, the A5X uses a metalheat spreader (along with thermal paste) to cover the flip chip underneath.^[8] The die takes up 162.94 mm² of area^[9]—a 36.5% increase in area used over the 119.32 mm² die of the S5L8940 version of the A5.^[9] The A5X does not use thepackage on package (PoP) method of installation to support RAM—RAM is found externally from the A5X chip.^[8]

• iPad (3rd generation)

• Apple silicon, the range of ARM-based SoCs designed by Apple for their products.

• Computer-related introductions in 2012
• Apple silicon

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata