By: Doug S (foo.delete@this.bar.bar), August 6, 2014 9:21 pm
Room: Moderated Discussions
anon (a.delete@this.b.c) on August 6, 2014 2:48 pm wrote:
> A8 is rumored to run at 2GHz. A12, if not A10 will probably have a CPU
> core running @2.5/3GHz or close by. iOS volume will help the CPU core.
I haven't heard this A8 rumor, but a 50% higher clock rate is irrelevant unless IPC is held constant or nearly so. If the A8 runs at 2 GHz and is a brainaic design like A7, then that would be quite a nice achievement and a significant performance bump. But if someone tells you A8 will be 2 GHz, without knowing how the underlying architecture may have changed, it is pretty meaningless.
Making projections about the A10/A12 is even more fruitless, because who's to say Apple would target or even desire frequencies beyond 2 GHz if they feel it isn't power efficient? They'll want performance gains, but whether they try to achieve them by clocking higher or increasing IPC is anyone's guess.
Perhaps they could add features to their A* SoCs that wouldn't be needed for mobile that would be for Macs if they decided to go that route. Some special support for x86 translation to help speed it up, that sort of thing. Because I'm not sure they'd design a separate core for desktops, so much as try to design it in a way that it could have a higher power/higher clock rate brother. Similar to how Intel optimizes for performance, but can underclock a ULV Haswell in a Surface.
> A8 is rumored to run at 2GHz. A12, if not A10 will probably have a CPU
> core running @2.5/3GHz or close by. iOS volume will help the CPU core.
I haven't heard this A8 rumor, but a 50% higher clock rate is irrelevant unless IPC is held constant or nearly so. If the A8 runs at 2 GHz and is a brainaic design like A7, then that would be quite a nice achievement and a significant performance bump. But if someone tells you A8 will be 2 GHz, without knowing how the underlying architecture may have changed, it is pretty meaningless.
Making projections about the A10/A12 is even more fruitless, because who's to say Apple would target or even desire frequencies beyond 2 GHz if they feel it isn't power efficient? They'll want performance gains, but whether they try to achieve them by clocking higher or increasing IPC is anyone's guess.
Perhaps they could add features to their A* SoCs that wouldn't be needed for mobile that would be for Macs if they decided to go that route. Some special support for x86 translation to help speed it up, that sort of thing. Because I'm not sure they'd design a separate core for desktops, so much as try to design it in a way that it could have a higher power/higher clock rate brother. Similar to how Intel optimizes for performance, but can underclock a ULV Haswell in a Surface.
