The new iPad Pro is out today, and ArsTechnica has a deep dive look at the iPad Pro A12X chip with the help of Apple’s Anand Shimpi and Phil Schiller. Shimpi founded the hardware review website AnandTech before being hired to work on chips at Apple in 2014. In the piece, Shimpi says that Apple is using its own customer-designed performance controller to use all eight cores of the A12X chip in the new iPad Pro.
From the piece:
Shimpi also boasts that Apple is able to achieve MacBook Pro-class performance without using a fan:
“We’ve got our own custom-designed performance controller that lets you use all eight at the same time,” Shimpi told Ars. “And so when you’re running these heavily-threaded workloads, things that you might find in pro workflows and pro applications, that’s where you see the up to 90 percent improvement over A10X.”
As for the seven core GPU in the new A12X system on a chip, Shimpi echoed the keynote framing that the new iPad Pro has Xbox One S class graphics processing performance (although we know the challenge here is matching gameplay with available titles):
He adds that the iPad GPU performance has desktop GPUs in its sights when targeting performance:
When asked about why Apple continues to advance its A-series chips when the competition isn’t catching up, Schiller explained that Apple will lap its competition ten times if it helps their own customers:
Ars quite fairly ends on a plea for more powerful software from Apple that can run on the blazing fast new chips in the iPad Pro:
Read the full piece at ArsTechnica including lots of benchmark graphs and details. For more on the new iPad Pro, catch up with our coverage and stay tuned for hands-on impressions:
- iPad Pro review roundup: The best iPad yet, still not a computer, but maybe the future
- iPad Pro Diary: I’m already in love with the new compact 12.9-inch iPad Pro
- What can you connect to the new iPad Pro with USB-C?
- Which iPad should you buy? Here’s how Apple’s lineup compares in price
