Cupertino tech giant Apple has picked up its SoC game over the years. Ever since the company launched the iPhone X with the A11 chip, Apple's beaten Android in single and multi-core scores, and hasn't looked back. The A11's successor, the A12 solved the former's throttling problem, and Apple even improved the processor lineup's custom performance controller on the chip.
Additionally, the A12 also had a larger GPU over its predecessor, as Apple upgraded its processor in line with current smartphone computing needs. Now, tipster Ice_Universe is claiming that Apple will continue this trend of upgrades with this year's A13 processor. Take a look below for more details.
Apple's A13 Processor For 2019 iPhone 11 Lineup Will Improve Multi-Core Performance And Maintain AN Processors' GPU Advantage Claims Tipster
Ever since it launched the iPad Air 2, Apple has steadily built its microprocessor lineup for iOS devices. The iPad Air 2 ran on the A8X; the first 'X' iteration of Apple's custom-designed An processors. This SoC's CPU had three cores, and it was the first such design from Apple, which had previously chosen to use dual-core processors in all of its mobile products.
Apple's first hurrah with the AnX processors was with the A10X. The SoC powers the company's second-generation iPad Pros, which were the first tablets from Apple to feature ProMotion and 512GB internal storage. Apple's A10X has a similar 12 core GPU as the A9X, but its die area was lesser courtesy of TSMC's 10nm FinFET process.
With the A12, Apple decreased surface areas for the CPU blocks and increased L1 caches to 128KB from 64KB. Now, Ice_Universe is suggesting that Apple will focus on multi-core performance with the A12's CPU. The A12 comfortably scores 11k in GeekBench multi-core, so we're uncertain how far Apple is willing to push the boudaries with its next smartphone SoC. Ice also claims that the A13's GPU will maintain a one year advantage over Android. This is a questionable claim, as the 2018 iPhones have been beaten in some peak GPU tests by their Android counterparts, especially the Galaxy S10 smartphones.
Nevertheless, Apple's A13 will be the first chipset manufactured by TSMC's 7nm+ EUV, unless Huawei launches the Kirin 985 first. Looking at Apple's past performance, and the comfort that the company has gained in designing processors, it's certain that the A13 will improve in several areas over its predecessor.
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