Apple A5
The Apple A5 is a 32-bit system on a chip designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series, and manufactured by Samsung. The first product Apple featured an A5 in was the iPad 2. Apple claimed during their media event on March 2, 2011, that the ARM Cortex-A9 central processing unit in the A5 is up to two times faster than the CPU in the Apple A4, and the PowerVR SGX543MP2 graphics processing unit in the A5 is up to nine times faster than the GPU in the A4. Apple also claimed that the A5 uses the same amount of power as the A4.
The last operating system update Apple provided for a mobile device containing an A5 was iOS 9.3.6, which was released on July 22, 2019, as they were discontinued with the release of iOS 10 in 2016. The latest operating system update Apple has provided for an Apple TV containing an A5 #Third generation|third-generation Apple TV] and Apple TV Software 7.9, which was released on [March 14">TvOS#Apple TV Software 7">Apple TV Software 7.9, which was released on [March 14, 2022.
Design
The A5 chip features a dual-core 45 nm Cortex-A9 CPU including the Advanced SIMD extension, and a dual-core 32 nm PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU.The A5 integrates an image signal processor unit that can perform advanced image post-processing, such as face detection, white balance, and automatic image stabilization. The A5 also directly integrates Audience earSmart technology for removing surrounding background noise and secondary voices during phone calls.
The clock rate of the Cortex-A9 in the A5 used inside the iPad 2 and first-generation iPad Mini is 1 GHz. Unlike the A4, the A5 can run at slower clocks to conserve power. The clock rate of the Cortex-A9 in the A5 used inside the iPhone 4S and fifth-generation iPod Touch is 800 MHz. The A5's clock speed inside third-generation Apple TV is unknown.
When the A5 was first released, the production cost of the chip was estimated to be 75% more than the A4, with the difference expected to diminish when production would later increase., the A5 was manufactured at Samsung's Austin, Texas factory. Samsung invested $3.6 billion in the Austin facility to produce various chips, and nearly all of the facility's output was dedicated to producing Apple chips. Samsung later invested a further $4.2 billion in the Austin facility in order to transition to a 28 nm fabrication process by the second half of 2013.