An ARM-based system-on-chip (SoC) family from Apple that was introduced in 2007. Designed by Apple and made by TSMC, the Apple A series provided the processing in iPhones, iPads and the iPod touch until 2021, when Apple began using its M chips in the iPad (see
Apple M series). The iPod touch is discontinued, but the iPhone continues to use the A series chips. See
TSMC.
Using the RISC-based ARM CPU architecture, the Apple A series chips provide the equivalent processing power of desktop computers launched only a year or so earlier than the mobile product. Following are all A series SoCs including models prior to A. The "X" suffix denotes a higher-performance version of the chip. See
Bionic chip,
chip feature size,
SoC and
ARM.
The Latest A20
The A20 chips used in iPhone 18 models are the first to use TSMC's 2-nanometer process. Apple's latest A series chips have increased speed substantially with benchmarks equating them to desktop performance. With increasing focus on AI, the A20's neural accelerator has 32 cores. See
iPhone versions.
Other Apple Chips: S, W and T
The S chips are dual-core processors in Apple Watch. The W series refers to wireless chips in AirPods and the Apple Watch. The T series deals with Touch ID and security in Macs (see
Apple T series).
Apple A Series
Feature
Year Max Size ARM
(20xx) Model Clock nm bits CPU Cores
26 A20 Pro 4.9 GHz 2 64 Pro 6**
26 A20 4.4 GHz 2 64 Pro 6
25 A19 Pro 4.3 GHz 3 64 Pro 6**
25 A19 2.4 GHz 3 64 Pro 6
24 A18 Pro 2.4 GHz 3 64 Pro 6**
24 A18 2.4 GHz 3 64 Pro 6
23 A17 2.4 GHz 3 64 Pro 6
22 A16 2.4 GHz 4 64 Bionic 6
21 A15 2.4 GHz 5 64 Bionic 6
20 A14 2.4 GHz 5 64 Bionic 6
19 A13 2.4 GHz 7 64 Bionic 6
18 A12 2.4 GHz 7 64 Bionic 6
17 A11 2.4 GHz 10 64 Bionic 6
16 A10 2.4 GHz 10 64 Fusion 4
15 A9 1.8 GHz 14 64 Twister 2
15 A9X 2.3 GHz 16 64 Twister 2
14 A8 1.5 GHz 20 64 Typhoon 2
14 A8X 1.5 GHz 20 64 Typhoon 3
13 A7 1.3 GHz 28 64 Cyclone 2
12 A6 1.3 GHz 32 32 Swift 2
12 A6X 1.4 GHz 32 32 Swift 2
11 A5 1.0 GHz 32 32 CortexA9 2
12 A5X 1.0 GHz 45 32 CortexA9 2
10 A4 1.0 GHz 45 32 CortexA8 1
09 APL0298 600 MHz 65 32 CortexA8 1
09 APL2298 800 MHz 45 32 CortexA8 1
08 APL0278 533 MHz 36 32 ARM11 1
07 APL0098 412 MHz 90 16 ARM11 1
** Pro chips have 6-core GPUs rather than 5
See chip feature size.