Apple A8 Benchmarked

[Arachnotronic]

Do we know that the 6+ doesn't have 2GB?

 

[Eug]

Do we know that the 6+ doesn't have 2GB?

We don't. We do know the 6 only has 1 GB though. The question for us now is the status of the 6+ and the iPad Air 2, and the iPad mini Retina 2. For the 6+ we'll know in a few days. For the iPads, we'll know next month.

Back to the A8:

I'm curious how developers will leverage this H.265 support. It's not really necessary to use 4K on a 10" tablet and definitely not on a phone, but it would be really nice to see reductions in streaming bitrates for 480p or 720p or whatever. Not only is it helpful in wireless setups in homes, it will also help reduce LTE data usage amounts.

Right now for my iPhone 5s, i don't limit my surfing, but I rarely watch video on it, since my plan only has 2 GB.

I'm always low on memory and so are most iOS users.
Keeping apps open in active memory leaves me with a bit of free memory:

Closing all active apps:

This is on my iPhone 5. If free memory runs out, iOS will try to kill backgrounded apps. Safari is the biggest memory hog on iOS and really needs to be slimmed down for 1GB to be feasible.

I remember how terrible the user experience the iPhone 3G was in its later support life. I only had around 50mb free to play with, and once the number got too low, the app crashed. 128mb vs 1gb is a lot different; I'm hoping it won't be nearly as crashy

It should be noted that your iPhone 5 effectively has more RAM than both the A7 and A8 devices, since your A6 device is a 32-bit device.

 

[Haserath]

My guess is Apple must know it works well enough for most. It's not a problem for me on my 5s (although I have noticed the reloading tabs thing in safari) and it won't be an issue on the 6 at 1334x750 but the HD screen on the 6+ is gonna make safari even more of a memory hog.


I actually know somebody who was using a 3GS as recently as this last June. I was just amazed it was still running apps. iOS 4 I think?

3GS can run iOS6. I use one as an ipod.

1GB is very limiting. Not only does reloading happen, safari crashes constantly. An ipad 4 couldn't even stream Apple's live event without multiple crashes.

 

[Eug]

Nobody could stream Apple's live event. It was a total disaster.

 

[Rakehellion]

I'm always low on memory and so are most iOS users.
Keeping apps open in active memory leaves me with a bit of free memory:

iOS uses all of your device's memory to store recently used apps. That doesn't mean you're low on memory because you don't need "free" memory to run more programs.

A more relevant number would be to measure the amount that each app uses.

 

[wilds]

iOS uses all of your device's memory to store recently used apps. That doesn't mean you're low on memory because you don't need "free" memory to run more programs.

A more relevant number would be to measure the amount that each app uses.

You're right. I expect iOS to use all of my free memory throughout the day because I am not closing any apps. The problem is that Safari and other heavy apps are starting to stretch that 1 gb of RAM pretty thin. A6 doesn't have all that cache A8 does so it will be interesting to see how things will pan out...

 

[Arachnotronic]

You know that people want to be able to use their ridiculously expensive phone a few years from now just as well, too, right? You can't defend a $1000 phone for not having at least 3GB of RAM.

The fact that Apple can sell a 1GB phone in 2014 and still have people tripping all over themselves to buy it is pretty incredible.

Say what you will about Apple, but it's a phenomenal business.

 

[Essence_of_War]

but it would be really nice to see reductions in streaming bitrates for 480p or 720p or whatever. Not only is it helpful in wireless setups in homes, it will also help reduce LTE data usage amounts.

I think properly encoded h.265 content, even at 480/720, sees almost a 50% reduction in bit rate at comparable quality to h.264, right? That would be very welcome. My personal experience is that it's tough to chew through data plans unless I'm watching a ton of streaming video content. Stretching that, or allowing slower connections access to consistently higher quality content, will be very nice.

 

[dragantoe]

My guess is Apple must know it works well enough for most. It's not a problem for me on my 5s (although I have noticed the reloading tabs thing in safari) and it won't be an issue on the 6 at 1334x750 but the HD screen on the 6+ is gonna make safari even more of a memory hog.


I actually know somebody who was using a 3GS as recently as this last June. I was just amazed it was still running apps. iOS 4 I think?

they can use ios 6 iirc and I've heard rumors of ios 7 being able to run on it
...

 

[JDG1980]

I asked what iOS software would require a device with more than 1GB of memory.

Safari, for starters. As others have noted (and I've personally observed multiple times), you'll wind up with a lot of slow page reloads if you have several tabs open and switch between them.

 

[NTMBK]

I wonder if they are keeping down the memory size so that they can go to stacked memory on the next model? Don't want developers getting used to 3GB RAM, then having to drop back down to 1GB of stacked...

 

[Sweepr]

http://results.rightware.com/basemark_x/all-all-phone-ios-all

 

[Enigmoid]

I wonder if they are keeping down the memory size so that they can go to stacked memory on the next model? Don't want developers getting used to 3GB RAM, then having to drop back down to 1GB of stacked...

Regardless, in a year or two 1 GB stacked or not will be insufficient.

 

[witeken]

An iPad Air teardown I found had the memory costing $10.50. I guess we will have to see how much the 6 parts cost, but 2 GB of memory could cost more than the A8+M8 processors. Apple could obviously afford it, but you have to remember that Apple still only really allows the foreground app to run. It's not like Android or especially Windows. I just don't think forcing apps to reload is that big of a deal, esp when the developer is accounting for that.

You can be assured that 1GB of RAM costs Apple less than your $10.5 number.

 

[Roland00Address]

So unless apple just ramps up the mhz speed or throw in 2gbs of ram in the ipad factor since battery life is less of a concern, what will be the improvement from this year's ipad vs last year's? All I see is a very marginal improvement.

I ask for how are they going to convince last year people's to upgrade, or if you were able to get last year model for a significant discount why wouldn't you get last years model on clearance vs this year's model?

 

[erunion]

The iPhone 6 really reveals apple strategy. Its clear now that the iPhone 5 wasn't just a mistep by Apple. Apples strategy is to give incremental improvements every year, trying to balance the tight rope of maintaining the desire of yearly purchases. They need to make each phone an upgrade, but not too much of an upgrade that they can't improve upon it in 12 months.

Apple sees itself as only competing with itself. We'll see how that plays out.

My belief is that Cook, as a margin obsessed supply chain guy, doesn't have what it takes to build the next iPod. Jobs achieved margins by focusing on the product, Cook focuses on margins at the expense of the product: iPhone 5c.
At least the 6+ reverses that 5c strategy, by increasing ASP and not cutting manufacturing cost. But their margins are already there, where they need to find growth is in volume.

 

[witeken]

We know this strategy for years now. I was not surprised at all when Apple launched the iPad Mini with low-res display.

 

[Eug]

So unless apple just ramps up the mhz speed or throw in 2gbs of ram in the ipad factor since battery life is less of a concern, what will be the improvement from this year's ipad vs last year's? All I see is a very marginal improvement.

I ask for how are they going to convince last year people's to upgrade, or if you were able to get last year model for a significant discount why wouldn't you get last years model on clearance vs this year's model?

TouchID.

 

[TreVader]

Is it confirmed that the 6+ has only 1GB?

 

[erunion]

We know this strategy for years now. I was not surprised at all when Apple launched the iPad Mini with low-res display.

I think there was still a hope that apple would leap frog Android phones.

 

[positivedoppler]

Hope nobody posted this.
https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/content/3842-intel-core-m-vs-apple-a8.html

The interesting thing to note about the A8 vs Core M is that at TSMC 20nm Apple was able to pack in 2B transistors while Intel was only able to pack in 1.3B at 14nm. Apple’s die size is a tad larger (89mm2 vs 82mm) but seriously, this is a 20nm planar versus 14nm FinFET comparison and where is Intel’s so called transistor density superiority?!?!?!?! Let’s wait for the teardown and benchmarks but this has got to be a humbling experience for Intel. Kind of like when Apple released a 64-bit SoC last year and Qualcomm wet themselves.l

 

[TuxDave]

Hope nobody posted this.
https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/content/3842-intel-core-m-vs-apple-a8.html

The interesting thing to note about the A8 vs Core M is that at TSMC 20nm Apple was able to pack in 2B transistors while Intel was only able to pack in 1.3B at 14nm. Apple’s die size is a tad larger (89mm2 vs 82mm) but seriously, this is a 20nm planar versus 14nm FinFET comparison and where is Intel’s so called transistor density superiority?!?!?!?! Let’s wait for the teardown and benchmarks but this has got to be a humbling experience for Intel. Kind of like when Apple released a 64-bit SoC last year and Qualcomm wet themselves.l

If you step back and think critically on this, what questions would you ask to convince yourself that the A8 on 20nm has a ~2x density advantage over Core M on 14nm. Mine would be:

1) Can we assume that architectures are comparable to make density comparisons?
2) What other design factors would affect the resulting design density?
3) And at the most basic level, how are they counting transistors?

 

[Eug]

I think there was still a hope that apple would leap frog Android phones.

Nah, if anything, there was a hope early on that Apple would release 3 sizes, including a smaller one, closer to the 4.0" size of the 5s.

Is it confirmed that the 6+ has only 1GB?

Nope.

 

[TreVader]

I'm still wondering where all those transistors went. The leaked benchmarks don't look impressive, I wonder how A8 will handle 1080p and I'd love to see a comparison between how the A7 handles it's lower resolution display.

 

[witeken]

That high transistor density surely was a huge pain for Apple without 3D transistors to prevent those electrons from quantum tunneling!

I'm still wondering where all those transistors went. The leaked benchmarks don't look impressive, I wonder how A8 will handle 1080p and I'd love to see a comparison between how the A7 handles it's lower resolution display.

They gave 'em to the marketing team.