Tag: a11 bionic

Job Opening At Apple Hints At Health-Centric Processor

With its disputes with Qualcomm, Apple decided to use Intel chipsets in its upcoming smartphones. However, the company also announced that it will focus on using in-house chipsets for the iPhones. Which is why along with the iPhone X and iPhone 8, the company introduced the A11 Bionic chip. This chip has a dedicated neural processing unit for AI applications. A new job posting on Apple’s website shows that the company may be planning on bringing a health-centric chipset to its products.

In the list of Apple products which would use a health-focussed chip, the Apple Watch could be the first. According to the job post, the company is looking for ASIC (Application-specific integrated circuit) architect. Unlike common SoC, an ASIC chip only has a specific task to perform. For instance, high-efficiency Bitcoin miner is an ASIC. In simple terms, a Bitcoin is a form of electronic cash. However, the Cupertino company wants to use these ASIC chips for health focussed functionalities. The previous job openings at the company were for people with experience in health, wellness, and fitness sensors. These listings hint at the company’s future plans with its products, including, but not limited to, the iPhones.

Image: Apple ASIC Architect Job Opening

The current line of Apple iPhones including the iPhone 8 and iPhone X use the A11 Bionic chipset. This chipset uses a custom Apple GPU for graphics output. For LTE connectivity one of the iPhone variants uses a Qualcomm modem while the other variant uses an Intel modem. This is also what the company could be planning to move away from. In favour of in-house chipsets and modems, Apple may soon drop Intel and Qualcomm modems. However, the new 2018 iPhone lineup would most likely use the Intel modems. There is no word on the availability of this ASIC chipset but we think it could be seen in the next generation-Apple Watches. Stay tuned as we will be bringing more updates on the story on further development.

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August 16, 2018
Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S Could Be Faster Than Apple iPhone X

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S is speculated to be launched at MWC 2018. Apart from its out of the ordinary design, the Mi Mix 2S is expected to be one of the first few smartphones to run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. If true, some tests have revealed that it could be much faster than the Apple iPhone X.

Mi Mix 2s Renders

A recent benchmark test of a reference phone running Snapdragon 845 chipset has revealed that it is much faster than the Snapdragon 835. A reference phone is what Qualcomm relies on, to test new chips in as close to a real-world environment as possible. The test scores were compared with Google Pixel 2, Galaxy Note8, and the LG V30. All smartphones running on the Snapdragon 835 chipset.

Results:

Apart from blitzing the Snapdragon 835 chipset, the reference phone has a higher AnTuTu score than the iPhone X. After the launch of the iPhone X, the A11 Bionic chipset was in the news for being much more powerful than the Snapdragon 835. In our Samsung Galaxy Note8 and Apple iPhone X comparison, the A11 chipset fared much better in benchmark results.

The average score of the iPhone X on AnTuTu is over 202,000. In fact, the highest score record of iPhone X reported to Antutu database is 226,000. For context, Snapdragon 845 running reference phone scored a whopping 256,805. Now, if you are a believer in benchmark scores, then this test should be enough for you.

However, benchmark scores hardly ever tell the whole story. Companies like OnePlus, Samsung have been accused of optimising their devices in order to score more on benchmark tests. Also, how a chipset fairs over a period of intensive testing varies. After all said and done, the Snapdragon 845 chipset seems ready to rule most of the “speed tests” on the internet for the next year at least.

February 13, 2018
Apple iPad Pro 2018 Will Have A More Powerful Variant Of iPhone X Processor

Apple is one of the few companies still aggressively making tablets. So much so, that in the tablet industry, it is either an iPad or no tablet. Samsung launches a few tablets as well but, nothing comes near the dominance of iPads. The iPad Pro lineup is another successful iteration of powerful tablets with high-end specifications and premium price tag from Apple. It appears that Apple will continue that in 2018 as the next iPad is expected to be powered by an upgraded version of the iPhone X processor.

Chinese website MyDrivers revealed that Apple’s upcoming iPad Pro models will feature octa-core processors that are actually based on Taiwanese company TSMC’s 7nm manufacturing process. Supply chain sources have indicated that the octa-core processor is tentatively named A11X Bionic chip.

A11 bionic on iPhone 8 Plus Vs Snapdragon 835 on Galaxy Note8

The A11 Bionic chip has already surpassed every Snapdragon 835 running Android phone in benchmark and performance tests and that too with just six cores. With eight cores on the A11X bionic chip, it is safe to assume that the A11X might be the fastest chip on a mobile device in 2018. In the A11 Bionic chip, it was noted that the high-performance cores, called “Monsoon,” are 25 percent faster than the ones in last year’s A10 Fusion while the high-efficiency cores, called “Mistral,” are 70 percent faster than those of its predecessor.

According to a report, Apple has decided to make the A11 Bionic chip even more powerful by adding two more cores to it. Hence, the 2018 iPad Pro devices will come with three Monsoon cores and five Mistral cores. The A11X Bionic chip may come with a next-generation M11 coprocessor and neural engine. This would corroborate with previous reports suggesting that the iPad Pro in 2018 will also have Face ID just like the iPhone X.

The 2018 iPad Pros however, won’t have OLED screens like the iPhone X. This means that it is highly unlikely that the iPad Pro will have a design similar to the iPhone X with barely any bezels and a notch. The bezels might be thinner than the ones currently found on iPads but, for the ease of use, there will be some bezels.

November 16, 2017
Apple’s A11 Chipset Way Ahead Of Its Competition – Geekbench Founder

Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset was the incremental update to 2016’s Snapdragon 821 chipset and has largely been excellent in performance. Smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Note8, OnePlus 5 and Galaxy S8/S8+ have the latest flagship chipset and their performance has been top-notch. On September 12th 2017, Apple announced its three new iPhones and talked a lot about the new chipset inside the iPhones, the A11 Bionic chipset. The first ever chipset from Apple that has six cores, but, still less than the eight cores found in the Snapdragon 835. The iPhone 8 was launched and the customary benchmark tests were performed in which the A11 chipset blew the Snapdragon 835 out of the park on multi-core results.

Founder of Geekbench John Poole, a popular CPU testing portal in a recent interview said:

At this point, you’ve got desktop-class performance in a handset. There’s no way of looking at it any other way. I wouldn’t have thought to use my first-generation iPhone to edit video. I would’ve thought you were crazy. Everybody looks at the A11 scores and they go, ‘Holy crap, this is . . . what does this mean? Are these even comparable? The thing that I don’t fully understand is why performance has seemed to stagnate on the Android side. Where you don’t see these big leaps forward. I don’t understand what’s happening there.

The disparity of scored between the Snapdragon 835 and A11 Bionic is astonishing, considering the A11 has six cores while its counterpart has eight cores. So much is the dominance of the A11 chip that the benchmark results are close to that of a MacBook.

October 3, 2017