Overview of Apple's A6 Chip Development and Future Plans

apple a6 chipSemiconductor analyst Linley Gwennap has posted an interesting overview (via CNET) of the series of events that led to Apple's A6 system-on-a-chip, the company's first entirely custom ARM chip design. The report notes that Apple has likely spent in excess of $500 million on the project when including the purchase prices of chip firms P.A. Semi and Intrinsity.

At this point, Apple has spent about $400 million to buy PA Semi and Intrinsity, tens of millions for a license to design its own ARM CPUs, and probably north of $100 million to support its CPU design efforts over the past four years. It appears that the end result will be that Apple ships a Cortex-A15-class CPU about three months before arch-enemy Samsung does. These three months happen to come during the big holiday buying season, during which the iPhone 5 could generate $25 billion in revenue. So that half billion dollars could be money well spent.

The report traces Apple's ARM-based chip development back to its 2008 acquisition of P.A. Semi. Beyond its license to use ARM cores, Apple's acquisition of P.A. Semi led the company to also obtain a rare license to develop its own ARM-based CPUs, as had been rumored in mid-2008. Apple then split the P.A. Semi team into two groups to focus on what would become the A4 system-on-chip and to build Apple's own ARM implementations.

While one group of PA Semi employees set to work on the Apple A4 processor using an ARM CPU core, another group began defining the microarchitecture for the new CPU. According to one source, Steve Jobs initially set an “insanely great” bar for the performance of the new CPU, but he eventually realized that his CPU team was limited by the same laws of physics that apply to everyone else. For whatever reason, the project took a long time to get through the initial definition and design phase.

As Apple iterated on standard ARM solutions for the A4, A5, and A5X, it continued to press forward on its own A6, which reportedly saw design completion in early 2010 and physical design work wrapping up about a year later. With the first samples of the A6 being delivered to Apple in the summer of 2011, the company continued to put the chip and its production processes through extensive testing ahead of full production started earlier this year for the iPhone 5.

The report notes that Apple is likely to follow a typical two-year design cycle with its own chips, working on a 64-bit ARMv8 solution for launch in 2014. As a result, Apple's 2013 devices will likely use ramped-up variants of the current A6 design, perhaps by moving from a dual-core CPU to a quad-core processor or by boosting the graphics capabilities of the package as the company did for the A5X in the third-generation iPad.

Popular Stories

iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
iOS 26 Screens

Here Are All the iOS 26 Features That Require iPhone 15 Pro or Newer

Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence. The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
apple beta 26 lineup

Apple 'Sherlocked' These Apps at WWDC 2025

Wednesday June 11, 2025 7:14 am PDT by
Apple at WWDC previewed a bunch of new features coming in its updated operating systems, but certain changes will have been met with dismay by third-party developers who already offer apps with equivalent or similar features. In other words, their product has been "sherlocked" by Apple. When Apple creates an app or a feature that has functionality found in a third-party app, it is referred...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look. Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
maxresdefault

Everything Apple Announced at WWDC 2025 in 10 Minutes

Monday June 9, 2025 5:21 pm PDT by
At today's WWDC 2025 keynote event, Apple unveiled a new design that will inform the next decade of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS development, so needless to say, it was a busy day. Apple also unveiled a ton of new features for the iPhone, an overhauled Spotlight interface for the Mac, and a ton of updates that make the iPad more like a Mac than ever before. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel ...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Apple to Let iPhone Users Watch Videos on CarPlay Screen While Parked

Thursday June 12, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles. iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 Apple Wallet Boarding Passes

Apple Lists 10 Airlines Set to Offer iOS 26's Upgraded Boarding Passes

Wednesday June 11, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
As we previously reported, iOS 26 enhances Apple Wallet app boarding passes in a few ways. First, the passes now support Live Activities, allowing you to keep track of a flight at a glance on your iPhone's Lock Screen, and in the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro and newer. In addition, new shortcuts below the passes provide one-tap access to Apple Maps for airport directions, and to the Find...

Top Rated Comments

lifeinhd Avatar
166 months ago
Apple has likely spent in excess of $500 million on the project

Nah, Samsung's covered that for them quite nicely :p
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Skika Avatar
166 months ago
The eighth iPhone will be called iPhone 6? :confused: Annoying.

You are annoying.
Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Krauser Avatar
166 months ago
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Hexiii Avatar
166 months ago
Unlimited poweeer!!
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Patriot24 Avatar
166 months ago
It doesn't take a genius to see that safari feels snappier on the iPhone 5 (which should've been called "iPhone 6"), but I would have liked to see it running on a Powerbook G5 one day. Of course, Steve probably would not have allowed that. Now that he is out of the way, Tim Cook may have restarted the effort, but we won't know until the official unveil due to the doubling-down on secrecy.

Regardless, I am looking forward to new retina iMacs and Mac Pros.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jrswizzle Avatar
166 months ago
Apple completely designed their own CPU.....but the iPhone 5 isn't innovative :cool:
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)