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Apple’s powerful A6 a unique CPU design that’s never been seen before

Microprocessor Report’s Linley Gwennap today pens a rather fascinating article about the ‘A6’ chip in Apple’s iPhone 5,” Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s. “Gwennap writes that Apple has developed its own central processing unit, or CPU ‘core,’ based on the chip design technology of ARM Holdings, but completely different from the chips based on ARM intellectual property developed by Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Texas Instruments.”

Ray reports, “Writes Gwennap, ‘At the iPhone 5 announcement, Apple did not disclose what CPU it used in its new A6 application processor. Recent information, however, indicates that it designed its own CPU rather than licensing a Cortex-A9 or next-generation Cortex-A15 from ARM. Rumors about Apple working on a CPU design have swirled for the past several years, but the company had never publicly confirmed them. Initial analysis of shipping iPhone 5 units, however, confirms that the A6 uses a unique ARM-compatible CPU design that has never been seen before.'”

Apple A6 processor

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]

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