 Apple A9X chip | |
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | September 9, 2015 |
| Discontinued | June 5, 2017 |
| Designed by | Apple Inc. |
| Common manufacturer | |
| Product code | APL1021 |
| Performance | |
| Max.CPUclock rate | 2.16 GHz[1] to 2.26 GHz[2] |
| Cache | |
| L1cache | Per core: 64 KB instruction + 64 KB data |
| L2 cache | 3 MB shared |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Application | Mobile |
| Technology node | 16FF+ nm (TSMC)[3] |
| Microarchitecture | Twister[4][5] |
| Instruction set | ARMv8-A:A64,A32,T32 |
| Physical specifications | |
| Cores |
|
| GPU | CustomPowerVR Series7XT (12 cores)[3][6] |
| Products, models, variants | |
| Variant | |
| History | |
| Predecessor | Apple A8X |
| Successor | Apple A10X |
TheApple A9X is a64-bitARM architecture-basedsystem on a chip (SoC) designed byApple Inc., part of theApple silicon series. It first appeared in theiPad Pro, which was announced on September 9, 2015 and was released on November 11, 2015.[7] The A9X has the M9motion coprocessor embedded in it, something not seen in previous chip generations. It is a variant of theA9 and Apple claims that it has 80% more CPU performance and twice the GPU performance of its predecessor, theA8X.[8]
The latest software update for theiPad Pro 12.9 1st generation & 9.7 using this chip wasiPadOS 16.7.9, released on July 29, 2024, as it was discontinued with the release ofiPadOS 17 in 2023 due to hardware limitations of the A9X. It is expected to continue receiving security updates for some period of time.
The A9X features an Apple-designed 64-bit ARMv8-A dual-core CPU called "Twister".[5] It offers double the memory bandwidth and double the storage performance of theApple A8X.[9]
Unlike theA9, the A9X does not contain anL3 cache due to its significantDRAM bandwidth. The A9X is paired with 4 GB ofLPDDR4 memory in the 12.9" iPad Pro and 2 GB of LPDDR4 memory in the 9.7" iPad Pro with a total bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. This high bandwidth is necessary to feed the SoC's custom 12-corePowerVR Series7XT GPU.[10][6] The RAM is not included in the A9X package unlike its sibling, theA9.
The A9X uses the same NAND interface as the A9, which uses an Apple-designedNVMe-based controller that communicates over aPCIe connection.[11] The iPad Pro's NAND design is more akin to a PC-classSSD than embedded flash memory common on mobile devices. This gives the iPad Pro a significant storage performance advantage over competitors which often usemSATA oreMMC to connect to their storage systems.
The A9X has video codec encoding support forH.264. It has decoding support forHEVC,[12] H.264,MPEG‑4, andMotion JPEG.[13]
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