A10 fusion processor with 64 bit architecture. Full review of the Apple A10 chip
Many of our readers are concerned about the question - which of the processors is better and more powerful: Apple A10 Fusion or Qualcomm Snapdragon 821. We made a comparison key parameters like cores, clock speeds, graphics, built-in LTE modems and chip performance. Below are all the details about which one is cooler.
Comparison of characteristics
| Snapdragon 821 | A10 Fusion | |
|---|---|---|
| Tech process | 14 nm | 16 nm |
| Kernels | 64-bit, 4 cores 2x Kryo 2.4 GHz + 2x Kryo 2.0 GHz | 64-bit, 4 cores, 2x Hurricane 2.34 GHz + 2x Zephyr |
| Calculations | per core | per cluster |
| Graphics | Adreno 530 GPU 650 MHz | 6-core graphics |
| RAM type | LPDDR4, 1866 MHz | LPDDR4 |
| 4G LTE | X12 LTE Cat 12/13 | there is no data |
| Charger | Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 | there is no data |
| Graphics support | OpenGL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, Vulkan 1.0, DX11.2 |
OpenGL ES 3.0, Metal |
| Video | 4K Ultra HD video recording at 30 fps. 4K / 30fps video playback | |
| Codecs | H.264 (AVC) + H.265 (HEVC) |
H.264 (AVC) + H.265 (for Facetime?) |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11ac | 802.11ac |
Architecture
As you can see from the table, both chipsets have a 64-bit architecture and 4 computational cores. This design was created by ARM, it is called big.LITTLE Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) and means that not all cores in a cluster are equal. The Snapdragon 821 has two cores running at 2.4 GHz per core and two at 2.0 GHz. Apple's chip uses the same design, with a maximum processor clock speed of 2.34 GHz per core.
This is done so that the processor can deliver maximum performance in heavy applications, and in weak processes to save the battery power as much as possible. The Apple A10 Fusion is the first 4-core processor from the Cupertino-based company to be based on the big.LITTLE architecture.
Graphics and LTE modem
In terms of graphics, both chipsets use their own graphics system. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821 is an Adreno 530 GPU clocked at 650 MHz. Apple previously used PoweVR GPU graphics from Imagination Technologies. But with a 10 Fusion processor, she switched to a proprietary 6-core graphics chip. Apple graphics still do not have an official name.
Snapdragon 821 supports OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan 1.0, while A10 Fusion supports OpenGL ES 3.0 and Metal API (proprietary Apple development). Another difference between the chipsets is the SD 821's Quick Charge 3.0 support and Apple's lack of it. Also, the SoC Snapdragon 821 has an on-chip X12 LTE modem, while the Apple A10 does not have a built-in LTE modem and uses a third-party solution on a separate chip.
Performance
The Snapdragon 821 processor can be considered more productive, since for a relatively similar architecture and frequency, it is built on a smaller technological process (14 nm versus 16 nm). It will also have a positive effect on lower energy consumption. But in popular benchmarks like AnTuTu, Geekbench and Basemark OS III, the Apple A10 Fusion scores better than Qualcomm's SoC.
It is worth noting that the performance will still vary from device to device, because manufacturers use different degrees of optimization of hardware and software, as well as different processor "kit": RAM and flash memory, and so on.
Detailed results in the AnTuTu benchmark
| AnTuTu Test | A10 Fusion | Snapdragon 821 |
|---|---|---|
| 3D | 44996 (28917, 16079) | 56890 (36443, 20447) |
| UX | 52071 (8168, 11180, 21587, 4528, 6617) | 45278 (8209, 4833, 9027, 19639, 3570) |
| Cpu | 41655 (14512, 14632, 12511) | 32403 (12204, 8129, 12070) |
| RAM | 11568 | 6521 |
In AnTuTu, the difference between the performance of the chips is only 6%, but in the single-core Geekbech test, the difference was 126% in favor of Apple. In AnTuTu, the Snapdragon 821 chip performed better, only in the 3D test and scored 56890 points, where the A10 Fusion received only 44996 points.
Power consumption
Comparison was carried out on Apple smartphones iPhone 7 and Google pixel... As seen from the slide, in 3D iPhone games 7 performed better and retained more battery power than the Google Pixel. At the same time, when watching videos on smartphones, Google's Pixel on Snapdragon 821 gave a slightly better result than Apple's. From this we can conclude that if the SD 821 processor copes well with heavy games in terms of performance, then this is still not the best solution for games in terms of autonomy.
Along with the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Apple has introduced a new SoC that is built into both models. Apple's A10 processor hasn't received as much attention as it has in the past. But we were still able to find some interesting details both on the presentation and on the Apple website.
Apple is calling the new SoC in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus A10 Fusion smartphones. With the A10 Fusion chip, Apple moved to a new core architecture, the old dual-core cluster that offered both high performance and efficiency is a thing of the past. The number of cores doubled from two to four. But not all cores run at the same speed. Apple has adopted a design similar to other high-end SoCs that have fast and slow cores. The two cores in A10 Fusion are focused on fast computing with maximum performance. The remaining two are aimed at maximum power saving, they will probably be active when the iPhone is in standby mode.
But this design has its own problems, since the operating system will have to distribute the load across the cores. This creates an additional burden on application and OS developers. However, Apple has hardware and software platform are developed by one company, so the main pitfalls can be bypassed. Unfortunately, Apple does not provide details of the architecture of the cores. Unless it indicates that economical cores consume one-fifth of the power of high-performance cores. For the latter, Apple has used improved Twister kernels. For lean cores, Apple has probably relied on ARM's own design as well.
An important component of the A10 Fusion, according to Apple, is the performance controller, which distributes computing tasks to individual cores. It is not yet entirely clear whether all four cores can work simultaneously, or whether two economical cores work alternately with a pair of high-performance cores. V standard design big.LITTLE from ARM simultaneous operation of all cores is not supported.
The plenary also mentioned that the GPU in the A10 Fusion relies on six clusters. Probably Apple used a new line of GPUs. But the details are still unknown, we will wait for the analysis based on the first tests.
In terms of performance, Apple mentions a 2x improvement over the iPhone 6 and a 40% increase over the iPhone 6s. GPU performance has tripled over the iPhone 6 and 50% over the iPhone 6s. The A9 processor was manufactured at TSMC factories using 16nm process technology and at Samsung factories using 14nm technology. The A10 Fusion appears to be manufactured using the same manufacturing processes. Therefore, the performance gain is impressive - it is associated with architectural changes, and not with a decrease in the process technology. It is not yet clear how much random access memory smartphones are bundled with A10 Fusion.
Many of our readers are concerned about the question - which of the processors is better and more powerful: Apple A10 Fusion or Qualcomm Snapdragon 821. We compared key parameters such as cores, clock speed, graphics, integrated LTE modems and chip performance. Below are all the details about which one is cooler.
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Comparison of characteristics
| Tech process | 14 nm | 16 nm |
| Kernels | 64-bit, 4 cores 2x Kryo 2.4 GHz + 2x Kryo 2.0 GHz | 64-bit, 4 cores, 2x Hurricane 2.34 GHz + 2x Zephyr |
| Calculations | per core | per cluster |
| Graphics | Adreno 530 GPU 650 MHz | 6-core graphics |
| RAM type | LPDDR4, 1866 MHz | LPDDR4 |
| 4G LTE | X12 LTE Cat 12/13 | there is no data |
| Charger | Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 | there is no data |
| Graphics support | OpenGL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, Vulkan 1.0, DX11.2 | OpenGL ES 3.0, Metal |
| Video | 4K Ultra HD video recording at 30 fps. 4K / 30fps video playback | |
| Codecs | H.264 (AVC) + H.265 (HEVC) | H.264 (AVC) + H.265 (for Facetime?) |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11ac | 802.11ac |
Architecture
As you can see from the table, both chipsets have a 64-bit architecture and 4 computational cores. This design was created by ARM, it is called big.LITTLE Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) and means that not all cores in a cluster are equal. The Snapdragon 821 has two cores running at 2.4 GHz per core and two at 2.0 GHz. Apple's chip uses the same design, with a maximum processor clock speed of 2.34 GHz per core.
This is done so that the processor can deliver maximum performance in heavy applications, and in weak processes to save the battery power as much as possible. The Apple A10 Fusion is the first 4-core processor from the Cupertino-based company to be based on the big.LITTLE architecture.
Graphics and LTE modem
In terms of graphics, both chipsets use their own graphics system. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 821 is an Adreno 530 GPU clocked at 650 MHz. Apple previously used PoweVR GPU graphics from Imagination Technologies. But with a 10 Fusion processor, she switched to a proprietary 6-core graphics chip. Apple graphics still do not have an official name.
The Snapdragon 821 supports OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan 1.0, while the A10 Fusion supports OpenGL ES 3.0 and Apple's own Metal API. Another difference between the chipsets is the SD 821's Quick Charge 3.0 support and Apple's lack of it. Also, the SoC Snapdragon 821 has an on-chip X12 LTE modem, while the Apple A10 does not have a built-in LTE modem and uses a third-party solution on a separate chip.
Performance
The Snapdragon 821 processor can be considered more productive, since for a relatively similar architecture and frequency, it is built on a smaller technological process (14 nm versus 16 nm). It will also have a positive effect on lower energy consumption. But in popular benchmarks like AnTuTu, Geekbench and Basemark OS III, the Apple A10 Fusion scores better than Qualcomm's SoC.
It is worth noting that the performance will still vary from device to device, because manufacturers use different degrees of optimization of hardware and software, as well as different processor "kit": RAM and flash memory, and so on.
Detailed results in the AnTuTu benchmark
| 3D | 44996 (28917, 16079) | 56890 (36443, 20447) |
| UX | 52071 (8168, 11180, 21587, 4528, 6617) | 45278 (8209, 4833, 9027, 19639, 3570) |
| Cpu | 41655 (14512, 14632, 12511) | 32403 (12204, 8129, 12070) |
| RAM | 11568 | 6521 |
In AnTuTu, the difference between the performance of the chips is only 6%, but in the Geekbech single-core test, the difference was 126% in favor of Apple. In AnTuTu, the Snapdragon 821 chip performed better, only in the 3D test and scored 56890 points, where the A10 Fusion received only 44996 points.
Power consumption
Comparison was carried out on smartphones Apple iPhone 7 and Google Pixel. As you can see from the slide, the iPhone 7 performed better in 3D games and its battery retained more charge than the battery of the Google Pixel. At the same time, when watching videos on smartphones, Google's Pixel on Snapdragon 821 gave a slightly better result than Apple's. From this we can conclude that if the SD 821 processor copes well with heavy games in terms of performance, then this is still not the best solution for games in terms of autonomy.
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Beyond productivity. What the A10 Fusion processor is capable of
On iPhone presentations 7 we have already been told that the new A10 Fusion processor, composed of four cores of different capacities, is able to adaptively adapt to the needs of the user and significantly surpasses its predecessor in performance. As it turned out, the results of the smartphone in synthetic tests were comparable to those of the MacBook Air 2015 and MacBook Pro 2013.
According to Apple itself, the performance gain of the new "system-on-a-chip" is significant - the smartphone is 40% faster than the iPhone 6s and twice the performance of the iPhone 6. Two of its cores operate at a clock frequency of 2.34GHz, two more are used as an energy-efficient headroom and operate operating frequency at 1.05GHz. According to the observations of the editor of the portal Ars Technika, when switching the smartphone to power saving mode, it completely relies on their power. This rotation allows you to extend the battery life - but even in regular use, the A10 Fusion consumes 2/3 of the energy required by the A9.
In fact, it's too early to talk about the transition to a quad-core architecture - the system continues to "see" only two logical cores for computing. iOS independently decides when to switch between the main and additional kernels, not allowing them to be used at the same time. The indicators were checked using the Xcode Activity Monitor utility - the maximum processor load did not exceed 200%, even when using the most "heavy" programs. How is it possible to overcome the 100% barrier? The fact is that when monitoring the system, the load on each individual core is taken into account; for dual-core solutions, the limit is fixed at 200%. Since the release of the A5, two-core chips have been installed inside iOS devices, with the only exception being the iPad Air 2, which houses the triple-core A8X.
On this moment The A10 Fusion is the most overclocked chip in the history of iOS devices. As mentioned earlier, the two main cores are clocked at 2.34GHz. This indicator determines the number of calculations per unit of time. The A9 used a frequency of 1.85GHZ, and the A9X tablet found in the Pro series tablets overclocked to 2.25GH. But if you compare the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6s, these sets of numbers express stable correlations - a 27% increase in clock speed triggered a 30-40% increase in performance.
Synthetic tests do not always reflect the real state of affairs, however, traditionally they are considered in a good way compare technical capabilities devices. iPhone 7 does not fall behind - thanks to a consistent policy of using a low number of high-power cores, the smartphone confidently competes in multi-core mode and fantastically outperforms competitors in comparison “by one core”.
Multi-core configuration 
Single core mode The Geekbench 3 test results leave the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus clearly showing the evolution of proprietary processors. But the comparison with top-end Android devices looks even more interesting - the flagships from HTC, Nexus and Samsung are far behind.
Single core mode 
Multi-core configuration Also, the new processors do an excellent job with tasks requiring fast JS code execution, as evidenced by the results of the specialized Octane V2 benchmark. This indicates that there are no annoying jerks and short-term freezes when loading massive JS applications.
In addition, the publication Daring Fireball drew attention to the fact that the iPhone 7 in synthetic tests leaves everything behind. MacBook models Air and is close to the results of the MacBook Pro Retina 2013. In the future, this may mean that the company is ready to use mobile processors in its laptops - but they are built on different architectures.
Therefore, their comparative characteristics do not reflect real situation things: smartphones and computers run completely different applications and it is simply incorrect to compare their performance. But the company's success in developing its own ARM processors is evident. And the new A10 Fusion - good to that the confirmation.
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Full review of the Apple A10 chip
Full review of the Apple A10 chip
At its traditional September event, Apple unveiled two new processors - A10 Fusion for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus and S2 for Apple Watch Series 2. Despite the fact that almost nothing was said about the S2 processor, the company devoted much more time to the presentation of the A10 chip. The "Fusion" in the name of the chip indicates its heterogeneous architecture, which includes two high-performance cores with high throughput paired with two smaller, energy efficient cores. Such an approach allows not only to increase battery life, but also to increase the reliability of the device, while repairing an iPhone 7 if the chip is damaged will hardly become more difficult.
As a result, we got perfect solution when it comes to balancing performance and energy efficiency, and over the past year, Apple engineers have developed the most advanced SoC processor since the move to 64-bit architecture.
general information
The biggest technical changes that include Apple A10, we were informed at the very beginning of the presentation: the new processor boasts four cores with 3.3 billion transistors. At the moment, we do not know the number of transistors in the previous chip of the company, Apple A9, but for the A8 this figure was 2 billion, which implies that the A9 figure is somewhere in the middle, that is, last year's chip has less than 3 billion transistors. Apple continues to develop its flagship project year after year. For example, recently Kuperninovtsy patented a transparent display and are not going to stop.
Thus, the A10 turned out to be 50% "larger" in comparison with the A8, but here it is worth noting that some of the transistors are in the new low-performance cores. The graphics, in turn, are based on the familiar six-cluster subsystem, while the L1 and L2 caches remain the same.
Apparently, the 16nm FinFET process that TSMC used to manufacture the A9 chips is also used in the new processor, so the physical dimensions of the A10 could increase compared to its predecessor. Apple had the opportunity to equip some smartphones with 14-nm chips from Samsung, but to simplify production, the company stopped at more old technology, paying attention to optimizing the size of the chip and its placement in the device case.
Performance
The performance of the processor has traditionally not remained a secret: at its peak, the A10 works 40% faster than its predecessor, the A9 chip. The processor frequency increased by 25%, now this figure is 2.33 GHz, while the iPhone 6s had a chip with a frequency of 1.85 GHz. The big gains appear to have been due to improvements in architecture.
The 25% increase in frequency is a significant achievement, especially when you consider the fact that the A10 is built on the same process technology. Such results, apparently, allowed to achieve an improved heat sink system and a new heterogeneous architecture with two additional cores.
It is worth noting that along with the creation of a couple of new "slow" cores, Apple opened up a completely new range of options for dynamic voltage and frequency changes, which allows, if necessary, to completely disable the cores or their individual sections. In addition, for use in the iPhone 7, Apple has developed its own controller that allows workloads to be transferred between cores.
Some sources indicate that the company uses a special scheme for dividing the cache memory, thanks to which the kernel memory does not have to constantly access the cache of the previous kernel when switching, which allows faster putting certain processor blocks into operation.
The increase in frequency to 2.33 GHz allowed Apple to come close to the indicators of competitors, but achieving these results required the company to make some changes in the operation of transistors. For example, Apple increased the voltage and chose transistors with a high static leakage rate. Such sacrifices were relatively painless for the chip, since, as noted above, the chip has the best scheme heat dissipation, and the accumulation of static energy is reduced to naught thanks to the simple ability to turn off the circuit with the transition to low-performance cores.
Additional kernels
The new low-performance cores Apple A10 are of no less interest to us, since there is great amount speculation. It is believed that these cores are not Apple's own development and originated in ARM, which has similar circuits like the Cortex-A53. If this is true, we can only wonder why Apple, for the first time in a long time, decided to ditch internal development in favor of third-party technologies.
It's worth noting that the first-generation Apple Watch chip is also a third-party Cortex-A7 processor. Series 2, in turn, switched to a dual-core S2 chip, the cores of which, according to experts, could be included in the A10 as a low-performance block.
Main question is why Apple is now adopting a heterogeneous architecture. Apparently, the A-series of processors in their classic design has reached its logical ceiling, and further performance increases were impossible without increasing processor power requirements, which was the impetus for dividing the chip into high- and low-performance blocks.
In addition, the size of the semiconductor chip is limited, but as long as any advantage can be achieved by increasing the physical size of the chip, Apple will go that route. The expanded functionality of the image processor, in turn, could be the reason for increasing the L3 SRAM cache from 4 to 8 MB, which could also affect the size of the semiconductor chip.
Graphics subsystem
The presentation of the A10 chip ended with a story about the graphics subsystem of the processor. Fortunately, Phil Schiller revealed that the graphics are based on six-cluster design, which is in line with the A9 chip. If we talk about the performance of the graphics subsystem, the A10 is 50% faster than its predecessor, consuming one third less power during rendering. If we talk about the performance of the Apple A10 in real-life conditions, then today we have one of the fastest processors on the market, which was largely achieved by software optimization and the introduction of our own Metal interface for programming complex applications. In addition, the introduction of the new architecture has allowed Apple to open the way for further upgrades to the A10 chip, which guarantees a long life for this technology.
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What is the Apple A10 Fusion processor in the iPhone 7
Announced last fall flagship smartphones iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are equipped with the latest processor Apple's A10 Fusion is the most powerful smartphone chip in existence, making it not only faster than all previous iPhones, but also more economical, according to Apple. Those of you who have purchased these smartphones have already been able to experience the Apple A10 Fusion in action, but we invite you to find out what these chips really are and how they work.
Unlike its dual-core predecessor, the Apple A9, the Apple A10 Fusion processor has four cores and can run faster when high performance is needed, and more economical when the power of the device is not so important for the current task. This is due to the fact that Apple engineers used a completely new processor architecture in the Apple A10 Fusion, in which two cores are responsible for performance and the other two for efficiency.
The high-performance cores of the Apple A10 Fusion are 120 times faster than the processor in original iPhone, and 40% faster than the A9 chip in the iPhone 6S. At the same time, efficiency kernels are 5 times more economical than high-performance kernels, allowing you to achieve maximum performance and efficiency when you need it. All in all, the iPhone 7 lasts up to two hours longer on the battery, and the iPhone 7 Plus up to one hour longer than their predecessors.
In terms of graphics, along with the Apple A10 Fusion, Apple's latest flagships have an advanced six-core graphics processing unit (GPU) that's three times faster than the A8 processor in the iPhone 6, the fourth-generation Apple TV, and latest model iPod Touch. As noted by Apple, the power of this processor allows you to provide mobile games for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus console-level graphics, which was confirmed by the demonstration of the game Oz: Broken Kingdom at the company's autumn event.
In summary, the Apple A10 Fusion represents a giant step up from the A9 processor in the iPhone 6S. This is even though it is still manufactured using the 14nm FinFET process. Probably, in the future, Apple will surprise us even more, because according to the latest rumors, this fall, it will bring to the market the "anniversary" iPhone 8 with a new generation chip - A11, which will be produced on 10nm technology.
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Apple A10X Fusion: what hid the "heart" of the new iPad Pro
Introduced earlier this year at WWDC 2017, new iPad Pro Apple has left behind the scenes technical details regarding the underlying A10X Fusion SoC. Cupertinians limited themselves to a statement that with this chip the tablets became 30% more productive in terms of the CPU, and the graphics processing speed increased by 40% compared to the previous generation. However, our colleagues from the Canadian edition of TechInsights finally had the opportunity to study in detail the "heart" of these devices, and then we will tell you what exactly they saw in it.
First of all, the source notes that the Apple A10X Fusion is manufactured by TSMC using the 10nm FinFET process technology. Thus, we have before us the first 10nm processor released by a Taiwanese chipmaker, which appeared in a consumer device. And this is a very unexpected turn, because earlier all TSMC roadmaps indicated that such a chip would become MediaTek Helio X30.
Thanks to a new process technology, the A10X has 34% less area than the 16nm A9X - 96.4 mm2 versus 143.9 mm2. As for the rest of the microcircuit specifications, they include six cores (Hurricane + Zephyr), the maximum clock frequency about 2.36 GHz, support for 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and a 128-bit memory bus, as well as the presence of 8 MB of L2 cache. The integrated 12-cluster GPU at the IP block level is very similar to the graphics accelerator in the A10, only taking up less space due to the 10nm technology, which suggests that they are the same Imagination PowerVR solution. Just on the eve of Apple's upcoming transition to a GPU of its own design, this fact is not advertised by it.
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Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 vs Apple A10 Fusion
Introduction
Two leading manufacturers mobile processors are Qualcomm and Apple. Qualcomm chips are used in many popular smartphones while Apple releases its own models for its own iPhone devices and iPad. Last year, Qualcomm's flagship processor was the Snapdragon 821, while the rival was the Apple A10 Fusion. It was these two systems on a chip that set the tone for the performance and functionality of mobile processors. Which one is better?
What in this case means better? Performance, power efficiency, graphics chip? Wireless modem? Mobile processors have many characteristics. For this reason, we will have to compare these processors in different ways.
Specifications (edit)
Qualcomm and Apple do not like to give details about the contents of their processors. Apple is especially secretive, so information often has to be collected from the Internet from unofficial sources.
Both processors are 4-cores and use Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) architecture. This means that not all computing cores are created equal. They have two productive cores and two energy efficient ones. This combination is also known as ARM big.LITTLE. It was ARM that pioneered this approach and contributed to open source projects like the Linux kernel.
The Snapdragon 821 was the first Qualcomm HMP system to use its own Kryo cores, although it has previously used HMP in the Snapdragon 810 processor with Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53 cores. Qualcomm also uses the big.LITTLE combination in other processors, such as the Snapdragon 652, which have four Cortex-A72 and Cortex-A53 cores.
Although the A10 Fusion is a 4th generation ARM 64 bit processor, this is the first time it has 4 cores and uses HMP for the first time. The big difference between the Snapdragon 821 and the A10 Fusion is the former's ability to use all cores simultaneously, while the Apple processor can only switch between them.
Another important component is the GPU. Qualcomm is using its own design, Apple is doing the same for the first time for itself. Apple previously used GPU PowerVR from Imagination Technologies, and now its own product relies on PowerVR, but details are not available. In terms of programming interface support, Snapdragon's Adreno 530 supports OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan 1.0, and Apple's OpenGL ES 3.0 processor and proprietary Metal API.
There are two more worthy of mention differences. The Snapdragon 821 supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 with up to 18W of power, the Apple processor does not. The Snapdragon has a Qualcomm X12 LTE modem, the A10 Fusion has no built-in modem, an additional third-party chip is used. Three out of four iPhone 7s use Qualcomm modems.
Performance
This parameter is of greatest interest not only on mobile devices, but also in processors for personal computers, servers and supercomputers. Before diving into this issue, it should be recalled that productivity and energy efficiency are opposite. The higher the performance, the more energy is consumed. There are different equations that describe the relationship between these two parameters, and they include variables such as power consumption, voltage, frequency, and capacitance.
If the central processor works for more than high frequency, it uses more energy. If it is created on a smaller manufacturing process, it uses less energy. The lower the voltage, the less energy is consumed. On computers, power consumption is not so important since they are plugged into an outlet and cooled by large fans, but on mobile devices, things are different. Smartphones run on battery power and cannot afford to get too hot.
Snapdragon 821 is built on technological Samsung process 14 nm, while the A10 is manufactured by TSMC on the 16 nm process technology. This should mean that the Apple processor is using more power. The clock speeds are about the same, 2.4 GHz and 2.34 GHz, but you need to take into account the clock speeds of the energy efficient A10 cores. Also, performance is affected by the memory speed, the size of the L1 and L2 cache, the number of instructions per clock.
Differences in operating system design also play a role. Android is based on Linux, while iOS is based on BSD. Android uses the Java programming language, iOS uses Objective-C and Swift.
Testing was carried out using Google smartphone Pixel on Snapdragon 821 and iPhone 7 on A10 Fusion. Snapdragon 821 may have more fast smartphones depending on the components. At the same time, the difference in screen resolution between iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus affects the performance of the GPU. It is also believed that iPhone model 7 The 32GB used in this case has slower flash memory than the 128GB and 256GB models.
Two sets of tests were run. AnTuTu, Geekbench and Basemark OS II are available on Android and iOS. There were also some custom tests involved. The results are shown below.
As you can see in the graph, the A10 Fusion outperforms the Snapdragon 821. The performance difference varies across benchmarks. In AnTuTu, it is only 6%, while in single-core testing Geekbench, the advantage is as much as 126%. In other tests, the difference is about 30%.
AnTuTu performs four types of tests; 3D, UX, CPU and RAM. In the 3D section, the Adreno 530 performs better than the GPU in the A10 Fusion. Regardless, Apple's processor wins in the rest of the categories. In some custom tests, the processors go head to head, like a multi-core test. central processing unit and GUI data security testing. There are some benchmarks in which Apple's processor is the clear leader. This is especially true for testing RAM.
The second set of tests consisted of benchmarks exclusive to each platform. Cross-platform benchmarks can have various weaknesses. The first problem is that platforms use different languages programming. This means that an application for one platform cannot be easily ported to another simply by recompiling. Another problem is the use of runtime libraries. For example, if an application needs to manipulate certain data, compress, encrypt, copy, etc., there are different functions of the respective programming language and operating system for this. But for a benchmark, this means that the application is testing the performance of the runtime library and operating system, not hardware components.
There is different methods writing applications for two platforms at the same time. One is to use a SDK with support different platforms, the other is in the use of the C programming language, which is a kind of universal programming language for different platforms. Almost all operating systems have a C compiler, including Windows, Android, iOS, Linux, macOS.
In the tests carried out, both approaches were considered. One set of benchmarks used the LUA programming language with support for various development kits for Android and iOS, while another set of benchmarks used C.
There were two tests on LUA. The first only looks at CPU performance without graphics. One hundred 4KB SHA1 data hashes and other CPU tasks are computed. The result is the test time.
As you can see in the graph, the iPhone 7 is the clear winner. The second test is different from the first, it uses 2D graphics. A 2D physics engine is used to simulate water pouring into a container. The application is designed to work at a frequency of 60 frames / s, every two drops of water add one frame. It measures how many drops are processed and how many are skipped, the maximum result can be 10800. Pixel scored 10178, iPhone 7 10202.
In C testing, the iOS app is actually written in Objective-C to handle the UI, but the benchmark code on both operating systems same.
The first test constantly computes the SHA1 hash function of the data block. The second calculates the first million primes using division. The third test computes an arbitrary function that performs many different mathematical functions. In each case, the time taken to complete the test is measured.
As you can see, in all cases Snapdragon 821 wins. A partly paradoxical situation is developing. While the previous benchmarks showed smoother results, only the Qualcomm processor is in the lead. The bottom line, though, is that Apple's processor is faster. In recent tests, the Android NDK C compiler may be better than the Xcode compiler, or due to the nature of the HMP, the performance A10 Fusion kernels may not be used in these tests.
Energy consumption
As mentioned above, you can create a high-performance processor if you can afford high power consumption and a powerful cooling system. This is not possible on mobile devices, so it is important to keep an eye on power consumption. Testing processor performance on mobile devices is not easy. There are many options, including disassembling the device and connecting the wires to the motherboard. In this case, we will apply software and math.
To begin with, the brightness of each smartphone is set to minimum, the home screen is launched, on which nothing happens. An hour later, the power consumption is analyzed to understand how much the processor is being spent in this idle mode. Pixel spent 5%, iPhone 4%. This is to be expected, since the Pixel's screen is larger and has a higher resolution, the minimum brightness is also slightly higher. Capacity iPhone battery 7 is equal to 1960 mAh, Pixel is 2770 mAh. This means that the Pixel used up 138 mAh per hour, the iPhone 7 78 mAh.
After that, the Epic Citadel demo was launched for an hour. Apparatuses were consumed by 20%. Obviously, 4% and 5% were spent on displaying on the screen, so the test itself on the iPhone used up 16% of the total battery, on the Pixel 15%, which is 319 mAh and 415 mAh, respectively. The Pixel GPU works harder as it needs to process more pixels on the screen in every frame. The difference in the number of pixels is 2 times.
The same test was performed for video playback. The VLC video player and the 1 hour file have changed. iPhone spent 11% charge, Pixel 10%, excluding 7% and 5% screen, or 137 mAh and 138 mAh.
It is difficult to name an obvious winner. On iPhone battery less, which one might consider as proof of greater energy efficiency, but here the screen resolution is also smaller. It should be noted that the iPhone 7 Plus has a larger battery than the Pixel, and the screen resolution is the same. In 3D games, the Apple device uses less power, but the GPU is less loaded. When displaying video, the results are almost the same.
Conclusion
Millions of Qualcomm and Apple processors are currently used in mobile devices around the world. Considering the CPU, GPU, Image Processor and Signal Processor, Modem, they have their pros and cons.
The Snapdragon 821 is more functional as it contains an LTE modem that is used separately on the iPhone 7, supports fast charging and more. graphical interfaces... This reflects the business model of Qualcomm, Snapdragon processors are sold to manufacturers of smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, multimedia players and other devices. The A10 processor is designed for iPhone and iPad only.
When it comes to performance, Apple's processor is in the lead, although not much and the difference depends on the type of load. In some AnTuTu tests, the Snapdragon 821 is not inferior, while in other tests in the C programming language it outperforms its competitor.
In terms of energy efficiency, no big difference was noticed; other components play a role here, besides the processor.
ARM-based smartphones and tablets last years increased performance at multiple rates, while the x86 market has long forgotten about such progress. As a result, a psychological turning point has been reached today. The new Apple A10 Fusion chip, used in the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus smartphones, has reached the level of processors in terms of single-core CPU performance Intel Core for laptops. According to Geekbench tests, for this indicator new iPhones not only outperform competitors from the Android camp, but also turn out to be faster than any of the released MacBook Air laptops, many Mac computers and even workstation 2013 Mac Pro.
Of course, comparing smartphones with desktop systems is strange, but the fact itself says a lot about the direction of the industry in recent years and the explosive development of the mobile market. For many years Intel has dominated the consumer processor sector, but today its position is not strong enough.
In today's world that is slowly but surely shifting into the mobile computing sector, Intel's future is becoming even dimmer. Advertisers are starting to invest more and more in the mobile sector, decreasing investment in PC advertising - much faster than the print ad market has collapsed in the past. And people buy smartphones five times more often than new PCs.
In 2015, according to IDC, the market sold 1.43 billion smartphones versus 276 million PCs. Apple alone in the last quarter of 2015 sold more iPhones (74.8 million) than personal computers in the entire industry (71.9 million)! Already today, judging by numbers alone, Apple A processors are at least as important as most Intel x86 chips.
But now that the A10 Fusion can rival Intel's mobile processors in performance, it's just a matter of the operating system that stops Apple from launching laptops on its own processors: macOS is optimized for x86. But the Cupertino company has enough resources to begin turning iOS into a universal platform. Promoting the iPad Pro is perhaps just the first step along this path. And as part of this step, desktop heavyweights like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom are already appearing on iOS with very broad functionality.
Graphically rich games are still an important advantage of the PC. high class... But this is only true when it comes to Windows systems: for macOS, this factor is much less significant. Apple continues to develop macOS, but today most of the latest innovations come from iOS. Thus, in many ways, macOS is a platform that exists for the sake of compatibility with old software and at any time Apple can call it obsolete, concentrating all its efforts on the development of iOS.
For a generation raised in the golden age of the PC, it's hard to understand and accept new world, in which a new generation of people has already appeared, very far from desktop systems... Today, PCs are gradually turning into a kind of mainframe: these are impressive, powerful and dimensional systems, the need for which arises only when it is necessary to solve especially complex problems.
The market for powerful systems will not disappear anywhere: you can install powerful multi-core processors, several high-end video cards, a huge array of drives in your PC. But the market for such systems will continue to shrink along with the growth of mobile chip power and mobile software capabilities.
Apple is clearly diminishing its focus on the desktop market (perhaps due to dissatisfaction with new Intel chips): many of her computers have not received updates for a long time (for example, the MacBook Pro and Air never got chips Intel Skylake). Microsoft even criticized the Cupertines for their lack of attention to the PC market. Perhaps this is another sign of Apple's desire to switch to its own chips in Mac computers.
The two leading mobile processor manufacturers are Qualcomm and Apple. Qualcomm chips are used in many popular smartphones, while Apple releases its models for its own iPhone and iPad devices. Last year, Qualcomm's flagship processor was the Snapdragon 821, while the rival was the Apple A10 Fusion. It was these two systems on a chip that set the tone for the performance and functionality of mobile processors. Which one is better?
What does it mean better in this case? Performance, power efficiency, graphics chip? Wireless modem? Mobile processors have many characteristics. For this reason, we will have to compare these processors in different ways.
Specifications (edit)
Qualcomm and Apple do not like to give details about the contents of their processors. Apple is especially secretive, so information often has to be collected from the Internet from unofficial sources.
Both processors are 4-cores and use Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) architecture. This means that not all computing cores are created equal. They have two productive cores and two energy efficient ones. This combination is also known as ARM big.LITTLE. It was ARM that pioneered this approach and contributed to open source projects like the Linux kernel.
The Snapdragon 821 was the first Qualcomm HMP system to use its own Kryo cores, although it has previously used HMP in the Snapdragon 810 processor with Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53 cores. Qualcomm also uses the big.LITTLE combination in other processors, such as the Snapdragon 652, which have four Cortex-A72 and Cortex-A53 cores.
Although the A10 Fusion is a 4th generation ARM 64 bit processor, this is the first time it has 4 cores and uses HMP for the first time. The big difference between the Snapdragon 821 and the A10 Fusion is the former's ability to use all cores simultaneously, while the Apple processor can only switch between them.
Another important component is the GPU. Qualcomm is using its own design, Apple is doing the same for the first time for itself. Apple previously used GPU PowerVR from Imagination Technologies, and now its own product relies on PowerVR, but details are not available. In terms of programming interface support, Snapdragon's Adreno 530 supports OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan 1.0, and Apple's OpenGL ES 3.0 processor and proprietary Metal API.
There are two other notable differences. The Snapdragon 821 supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 with up to 18W of power, the Apple processor does not. The Snapdragon has a Qualcomm X12 LTE modem, the A10 Fusion has no built-in modem, an additional third-party chip is used. Three out of four iPhone 7s use Qualcomm modems.
Performance
This parameter is of greatest interest not only on mobile devices, but also in processors for personal computers, servers and supercomputers. Before diving into this issue, it should be recalled that productivity and energy efficiency are opposite. The higher the performance, the more energy is consumed. There are different equations that describe the relationship between these two parameters, and they include variables such as power consumption, voltage, frequency, and capacitance.
If the CPU is running at a higher frequency, it uses more power. If it is created on a smaller manufacturing process, it uses less energy. The lower the voltage, the less energy is consumed. On computers, power consumption is not so important since they are plugged into an outlet and cooled by large fans, but on mobile devices, things are different. Smartphones run on battery power and cannot afford to get too hot.
Snapdragon 821 is built on Samsung's 14nm process technology, while the A10 is manufactured by TSMC on 16nm process technology. This should mean that the Apple processor is using more power. The clock speeds are about the same, 2.4 GHz and 2.34 GHz, but you need to take into account the clock speeds of the energy efficient A10 cores. Also, performance is affected by the memory speed, the size of the L1 and L2 cache, the number of instructions per clock.
Differences in operating system design also play a role. Android is based on Linux, while iOS is based on BSD. Android uses the Java programming language, iOS uses Objective-C and Swift.
Testing was conducted using a Google Pixel smartphone with Snapdragon 821 and iPhone 7 with A10 Fusion. The Snapdragon 821 may have faster smartphones, depending on the components. At the same time, the difference in screen resolution between iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus affects the performance of the GPU. It is also believed that the 32GB iPhone 7 used in this case has slower flash memory than the 128GB and 256GB models.
Two sets of tests were run. AnTuTu, Geekbench and Basemark OS II are available on Android and iOS. There were also some custom tests involved. The results are shown below.
As you can see in the graph, the A10 Fusion outperforms the Snapdragon 821. The performance difference varies across benchmarks. In AnTuTu, it is only 6%, while in single-core testing Geekbench, the advantage is as much as 126%. In other tests, the difference is about 30%.
AnTuTu performs four types of tests; 3D, UX, CPU and RAM. In the 3D section, the Adreno 530 performs better than the GPU in the A10 Fusion. Regardless, Apple's processor wins in the rest of the categories. In some custom tests, the processors go head to head, like the multi-core CPU test and the GUI data security test. There are some benchmarks in which Apple's processor is the clear leader. This is especially true for testing RAM.
The second set of tests consisted of benchmarks exclusive to each platform. Cross-platform benchmarks can have various weaknesses. The first problem is that the platforms use different programming languages. This means that an application for one platform cannot be easily ported to another simply by recompiling. Another problem is the use of runtime libraries. For example, if an application needs to manipulate certain data, compress, encrypt, copy, etc., there are different functions of the respective programming language and operating system for this. But for a benchmark, this means that the application is testing the performance of the runtime library and operating system, not hardware components.
There are different methods of writing applications for two platforms at the same time. One is to use a development kit with support for different platforms, the other is to use the C programming language, which is a kind of universal programming language for different platforms. Almost all operating systems have a C compiler, including Windows, Android, iOS, Linux, macOS.
In the tests carried out, both approaches were considered. One set of benchmarks used the LUA programming language with support for various development kits for Android and iOS, while another set of benchmarks used C.
There were two tests on LUA. The first only looks at CPU performance without graphics. One hundred 4KB SHA1 data hashes and other CPU tasks are computed. The result is the test time.
As you can see in the graph, the iPhone 7 is the clear winner. The second test is different from the first, it uses 2D graphics. A 2D physics engine is used to simulate water pouring into a container. The application is designed to work at a frequency of 60 frames / s, every two drops of water add one frame. It measures how many drops are processed and how many are skipped, the maximum result can be 10800. Pixel scored 10178, iPhone 7 10202.
In C testing, the iOS app is actually written in Objective-C to handle the UI, but the benchmark code is the same on both operating systems.
The first test constantly computes the SHA1 hash function of the data block. The second calculates the first million primes using division. The third test computes an arbitrary function that performs many different mathematical functions. In each case, the time taken to complete the test is measured.
As you can see, in all cases Snapdragon 821 wins. A partly paradoxical situation is developing. While the previous benchmarks showed smoother results, only the Qualcomm processor is in the lead. The bottom line, though, is that Apple's processor is faster. In recent tests, the Android NDK C compiler may be better than the Xcode compiler, or due to the nature of the HMP, the performance A10 Fusion kernels may not be used in these tests.
Energy consumption
As mentioned above, you can create a high-performance processor if you can afford high power consumption and a powerful cooling system. This is not possible on mobile devices, so it is important to keep an eye on power consumption. Testing processor performance on mobile devices is not easy. There are many options, including disassembling the device and connecting the wires to the motherboard. In this case, we will use software and math.
To begin with, the brightness of each smartphone is set to minimum, the home screen is launched, on which nothing happens. An hour later, the power consumption is analyzed to understand how much the processor is being spent in this idle mode. Pixel spent 5%, iPhone 4%. This is to be expected, since the Pixel's screen is larger and has a higher resolution, the minimum brightness is also slightly higher. The iPhone 7 has a 1,960mAh battery and a 2,770mAh Pixel. This means that the Pixel used up 138 mAh per hour, the iPhone 7 78 mAh.
After that, the Epic Citadel demo was launched for an hour. Apparatuses were consumed by 20%. Obviously, 4% and 5% were spent on displaying on the screen, so the test itself on the iPhone used up 16% of the total battery, on the Pixel 15%, which is 319 mAh and 415 mAh, respectively. The Pixel GPU works harder as it needs to process more pixels on the screen in every frame. The difference in the number of pixels is 2 times.
The same test was performed for video playback. The VLC video player and the 1 hour file have changed. iPhone spent 11% charge, Pixel 10%, excluding 7% and 5% screen, or 137 mAh and 138 mAh.
It is difficult to name an obvious winner. On the iPhone, the battery is smaller, which some might consider as proof of greater energy efficiency, but the screen resolution is also smaller here. It should be noted that the iPhone 7 Plus has a larger battery than the Pixel, and the screen resolution is the same. In 3D games, the Apple device uses less power, but the GPU is less loaded. When displaying video, the results are almost the same.
Conclusion
Millions of Qualcomm and Apple processors are currently used in mobile devices around the world. Considering the CPU, GPU, Image Processor and Signal Processor, Modem, they have their pros and cons.
The Snapdragon 821 is more functional because it contains an LTE modem that is used separately on the iPhone 7, supports fast charging and more graphical interfaces. This reflects Qualcomm's business model, Snapdragon processors are sold to manufacturers of smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, multimedia players and other devices. The A10 processor is designed for iPhone and iPad only.
When it comes to performance, Apple's processor is in the lead, although not much and the difference depends on the type of load. In some AnTuTu tests, the Snapdragon 821 is not inferior, while in other tests in the C programming language it outperforms its competitor.
In terms of energy efficiency, no big difference was noticed; other components play a role here, besides the processor.