A couple of weeks ago, Apple launched its iPhone 6S and 6S Plus handsets, which are powered by an A9 SoC that comes with just two CPU 64-bit cores, both clocked up to 1.8 GHz. Now that might not too impressive on paper but when you compare it to Qualcomm and MediaTek’s high-end chipsets, Apple’s processors still manage to compete and even beat them with their performance on benchmarks.
According to Apple, their newest A9 SoC delivers more CPU performance by 70% and more GPU performance by 90%, compared to the A8 SoC, which powers the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
The A9 processor will presumably be replaced by the upcoming A10. Rumors about the A10 SoC have already begun, and the latest one reports that Apple is planning on increasing the CPU cores in up to 6 units next year. Even though it was previously suggested that TSMC will be the exclusive manufacturer of Apple’s next-gen SoC, this rumor goes against those allegations, reporting that Apple may also include Samsung or Intel in the production of this chipset.
The A10 chipset will allegedly be manufactured on a 14 nm or 10 nm process, with Apple focusing on multi-threading. It is very hard to believe that Apple would do something like this as soon as next year, because they managed to get incredible results even with two core chipsets. From what we experienced during these years, it is not in the company’s philosophy to power up their phones with the best chipsets out there. However, this rumor comes from the same source that leaked accurate information about the A9 back in time. Therefore, we have a reason to believe that this could be true.
If we assume that Apple will come up with an optimized six-core chip, it would enable Apple to increase the battery life of iOS devices by a more power-efficient design. It’s still early to talk about further details but we’ll keep you informed if anything new comes up!