ipad image performance is exploding! Master LU Exclusive analysis of A8X core

Beijing time October 17, not only is the Apple iphone kv plus on sale days, but also a new generation of ipad, ipad Mini, MacBook a series of Apple products released time. It's a busy day for the huge Apple biosphere. The ipad brings new processor a8x, how will a8x change compared to the A8 processor released a while ago? Take a look at the first hardware detection platform in China, the master team brought the exclusive hardware analysis. Figure I: Second generation 64-bit processor A8X said A8X had to mention the previous A6 and a6x, A5 and a5x relations, as for the A7 did not specifically launch a enhanced version of the product, Lu master engineers estimated that the Apple is the A7 has been able to drive the IPad Mini/ipad. Before Apple launched its ipad Air last October, there was speculation that Apple might launch a7x, but the end result was that the ipad Air and the iphone 5s had the same processor, and a7x skipped. This year's ipad Air 2 uses a new A8X processor, although Apple has not released A8X's technical specifications, but the news from the Conference, I believe you can guess. The previous Guru team made an accurate estimate of the A8 processor when the iphone 6 was released, and this time it would be a good idea to continue making a guess at a8x. Figure two: Apple A8 processor X-ray according to the master engineer analysis, the iphone 6 in September, the introduction of the 20nm process technology A8 processor, in such a short period of time to say that progress to the next generation process is unlikely, so a8x remain in the 20nm no suspense. The same generation of processors can be seen in the same architectures as A6 and a6x, with the use of the swift architecture based on cortex-a9 improvements, and this time the A8X and A8 architectures are not adjusted. Figure III: The past generation of processor specifications Master Team guess the change: CPU or have the frequency of ascension, GPU to enhance! Apple officially announced at the conference that the next generation of A8X processor performance CPUs were 12 times times higher than the first generation, and the GPU was up 180 times times. Apple's ipad, by convention, is 2048 x 1536 because of its high resolution, and to achieve the same experience as IPHONE6/6 plus after upgrading the system, the GPU part is the most needed. That's why every time the ipad's processor is compared to the iphone, the main change is in the choice of GPU modules. Figure IV: Apple processor GPU Specification TSMC 20nm process makes the A8 processor area than the previous 13%, but the transistor has turned one times, reached 2 billion, but a8x transistor incredibly up to 3 billion, so the process does not change the case a8x area will be slightly larger than A8 30%, About 120mm²。 So the next question is, where does the increased 1 billion transistor increase? If you look back at Apple's September 10 press release, you should remember the performance of the presentation of A8, a Moba game based on an ipad platform, "Vanity Glory" (vainglory), an amazing visual effect. To play a similar game on the ipad, the A8 processor's GPU performance does not seem to satisfy Apple. press conference on the promotion of a8x with Apple design of the hardware Image optimization processing unit, can be a certain optimization of image processing. Master LU's evaluation engineers think A8X's main advantage is that in the GPU, the extra 1 billion transistors should be from the GPU. Will a8x be carrying GX6650? A8 was released when almost all the media thought it was GX6650, because according to Apple's officially announced upgrade of 50%, GX6650 hardware parameters were the most matched products. But later, many of the dismantling and research found that its practical is GX6450, so the situation to achieve 50% performance improvement only in some specific environment (Apple is a bit of a bluff). Figure five: Apple processor graphics performance combined with Apple's ipad resolution far beyond the iphone and other factors, this release a8x will inevitably bring a new GPU, and Imagination's product line in addition to the Imagination PowerVR G6200 series has been released, Positioning the middle end has been A8 adopted by the GX6450, the most likely is GX6650. GX6650 was first released in this year's MWC conference, is a 192-core GPU, contains 6 unified shading cluster, each clock cycle processing 12 pixels, overall performance and Nvidia Tegra K1 very close. It has been speculated that Apple did not dare to use GX6650 on the iphone 6 because its fever problem has not yet reached the demand of the handset, and imagination has indeed positioned it on a high-resolution flat or 4-K smart TV. From the imagination point of view, GX6650 is the flagship of the product, but also need a heavy manufacturers can help promote, no one wants to go on the plan in the four quarter of this year to the listing can not find a suitable carrier.