Intro:
Apple is a world-renowned brand that has managed to become one of the few trillion-dollar companies. Apple produces laptops, iPods, desktops, monitors, and much more. Out of all of them, the most prominent product is their iPhone. Apple is majorly known for its iPhones. Each year they roll out a new model, and currently, they are about to release the iPhone 12.
If you use Apple products, you’ll know that Apple designs and uses everything by itself. The majority of components that go into assembling an iPhone are all designed and produced by Apple itself. It’s sporadic for Apple to use something designed by another rival company.
Apple designs and uses its processors in its iPhones. Although Apple does not design processors for laptops and desktops, it creates its processors, which are then used in the iPhones as well as iPads.
With each year, Apple releases a new iPhone, and with each new phone, Apple releases a new self-designed processor. These processors are specially designed to be only used in either iPhones or iPads. The biggest competitor for the apple processor is Snapdragon and Kirin processors from Huawei.
Today our primary goal is to compare two processors from Apple. The Apple A8 and the Apple A12. Apple designs both of them, and both of them were used in their respective flagship iPhones. Let’s get into it.
Apple-designed processors:
Apple has designed and designed the system in package (SIP) and system on chip (SOC) processors for their iPhones and iPads. The processors house a low powered central processing unit paired with other components into a physically compact package, to run Apple devices.
Apple A8:
The Apple A8 processor was first used in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus. These models were released on September 9, 2014. The Apple A8 was also used in the iPad mini four, which released a year later after the iPhone 6. Apple released the HomePod on February 9, 2018, which was also powered by the Apple A8.
Apple stated that the A8 has 25% more CPU performance and 50% more graphics performance than the predecessor, the Apple A7. The power draw of A8 is about 50% that of Apple A7. These stats are excellent compared to the predecessor, but when compared to the A12, it falls behind significantly.
Apple A12:
This Apple processor was used in iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and the iPhone XR. These models were released back on September 12, 2018. Later in 2019, the Apple A12 was used in the models of iPad Air and iPad Mini. The Apple A12 is marginally faster and efficient than its predecessor.
The two high-performance cores are 15% faster than Apple A11, and four high-efficiency cores that consume 50% less power than high-efficiency cores of the A11. As a comparison, it is much faster than Apple A11, but how does it compare with Apple A8. Let’s compare.
Apple A8 vs. Apple A12:
Differences between A8 and A12:
The Apple A8 is a dual-core processor with an integrated custom PowerVR GX6450 GPU in four cluster configurations. It has two threads. On the contrary, the Apple A12 is a Hexa-core processor consisting of two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, integrated with A12 bionic GPU. It has six threads. Each processor had four GPU execution units.
The Apple A8 is designed on the 20nm process by TSMC. This processor comprises a total of 2 billion transistors. On the other hand, the Apple A12 is designed on the 7nm FinFET process by TSMC. It consists of a total of 6.9 billion transistors.
Apple A8 was released in the third quarter of 2014, and Apple A12 was released in the third quarter of 2018.
Apple A12 has a base clock of 1.6 GHz, and a turbo clock of 2.5 GHz, while the Apple A8 only has a base clock of 1.4 GHz.
Apple A12 has a cache memory of 8 MB, while the Apple A8 has only 4 MB of cache memory. The maximum memory capacity supported by the A8 was 2 Gb, while Apple A12 supported 4 GB. The Apple A12 uses Big. Little technology, while the A8 does not.
On the AnTuTu benchmark, the Apple A12 scored 368,880, while the A8 scored only 79,100. The A12 was 366% better than A8.
On the iOS PassMark test, the Apple A12 scored 28,520, while A8 scored only 8,090. The A12 was 253% better than A8.
On the Geekbench 4 test, the Apple A12 scored 10,985, while A8 scored only 2,614 in the multi-core test. The A12 was 210% better than A8.
On the Geekbench 4 test, the Apple A12 scored 4,695, while A8 scored only 1,514 in the single-core test. The A12 was 320% better than A8.
Similarities between A8 and A12:
Apple A8 and Apple A12 were both designed primarily for the iPhones. They both were used in the flagships of their time, and both of them have integrated graphics and support 64 bit.
Both of them have integrated LTE built into them, and have dynamic frequency scaling. Apple A8 and A12 have NX bit and support hardware-assisted virtualization. Both of them have out-of-order execution and have AES. The final similarity is that both have the Trust Zone.
Conclusion:
Both processors were equally great in their respective times of release, but when comparing with each other, the Apple A12 stands out as the clear winner in terms of performance and efficiency.
