Apple A13
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | September 10, 2019 |
| Discontinued | March 3, 2026 |
| Designed by | Apple Inc. |
| Common manufacturer | |
| Max. CPU clock rate | to 2.65 GHz |
| Physical specifications | |
| Transistors |
|
| Cores |
|
| GPU | Apple-designed 4 core |
| Cache | |
| L2 cache | 8 MB (performance cores) 4 MB (efficient cores) |
| Last level cache | 16 MB (system cache) |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Application | Mobile |
| Technology node | 7 nm+ (TSMC N7P) |
| Microarchitecture | "Lightning" and "Thunder" |
| Instruction set | A64 ARMv8.4-A[1] |
| Products, models, variants | |
| Variant |
|
| History | |
| Predecessors | Apple A12 Bionic (iPhone) Apple A12X/A12Z Bionic (iPad) |
| Successor | Apple A14 Bionic |
The Apple A13 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC), designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series.[2] It appears in the iPhone 11, 11 Pro/Pro Max, the iPad (9th generation),[3] the iPhone SE (2nd generation)[4] and the Studio Display.[5] Apple states that the two high performance cores are 20% faster with 30% lower power consumption than the Apple A12's, and the four high efficiency cores are 20% faster with 30% lower power consumption than the A12's.[6]
All iPhones and iPads based on the A13 can be upgraded to iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 via over-the-air (OTA) update. These devices include the iPhone 11 series, the 2nd generation iPhone SE, and the 9th generation iPad.
Design
[edit]The Apple A13 Bionic features an Apple-designed 64-bit six-core CPU implementing ARMv8.4-A[1] ISA, with two high-performance cores running at 2.65 GHz[7] called Lightning and four energy-efficient cores called Thunder. The Lightning cores feature machine learning accelerators called AMX blocks. Apple claims the AMX blocks are six times faster at matrix multiplication than the Apple A12's Vortex cores. The AMX blocks are capable of up to one trillion single-precision operations per second.[7] The pair of Lightning cores share a 8 MB private L2 cache, while the four Thunder cores share a 4 MB L2. An additional 16 MB system level cache (SLC) serve as a on-chip last level cache, and is accessible to all components across the entire SoC.[8]
The A13 integrates an Apple-designed four-core graphics processing unit (GPU), with 512 FP32 ALUs. Apple claimed the GPU to be 20% faster than its predecessor in the A12, or can alternatively achieve the same performance using 40% less power. A13's eight-core neural network accelerator is claimed to be 20% faster or can achieve the same performance as A12 while consuming 15% less power.[3][7][9]
It is manufactured by TSMC on their 2nd generation 7 nm N7P (not to be confused with '7 nm+' or 'N7+'),[10] and contains 8.5 billion transistors.[11][12]
The A13 has video codec encoding support for HEVC and H.264. It has decoding support for HEVC, H.264, MPEG‑4 Part 2, and Motion JPEG.[13]

| SoC | A13 (7 nm enhanced) | A12 (7 nm) |
|---|---|---|
| Process node | TSMC N7P | TSMC N7 |
| Total die | 98.48 | 83.27 |
| Big core | 2.61 | 2.07 |
| Small core | 0.58 | 0.43 |
| CPU complex (incl. cores) | 13.47 | 11.16 |
| GPU core | 3.25 | 3.23 |
| GPU total | 15.28 | 14.88 |
| NPU | 4.64 | 5.79 |
Products that include the Apple A13 Bionic
[edit]See also
[edit]- Apple silicon, the range of ARM-based processors designed by Apple
- Apple M1
- Comparison of Armv8-A processors
References
[edit]- 1 2 "llvm-project/AArch64.td at llvm/master · llvm/llvm-project · GitHub". GitHub. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
- ↑ Hollister, Sean (September 10, 2019). "Apple says its new A13 Bionic chip has the fastest smartphone CPU and GPU ever". The Verge. Archived from the original on October 8, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
- 1 2 "Apple announces A13 Bionic chip for iPhone 11". VentureBeat. September 10, 2019. Archived from the original on October 3, 2020. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- ↑ "iPhone SE - Technical Specifications". Apple. Archived from the original on April 15, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
- ↑ Mayo, Benjamin (March 8, 2022). "Apple announces new $1599 27-inch 5K Apple Studio Display, featuring Center Stage webcam". 9to5Mac. Retrieved March 8, 2022.
- ↑ Dillet, Romain (September 10, 2019). "Apple introduces the A13 Bionic for the iPhone 11". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
- 1 2 3 Frumusanu, Andrei. "Apple Announces New iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, & iPhone 11 Pro Max". AnandTech. Archived from the original on September 23, 2019. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- ↑ Frumusanu, Andrei. "The Apple iPhone 11, 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max Review: Performance, Battery, & Camera Elevated". www.anandtech.com. Archived from the original on October 16, 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2023.
- ↑ Owen, Malcolm (September 11, 2019). "More power with less: Apple's A13 Bionic is faster and more power efficient". AppleInsider. Archived from the original on July 26, 2020. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- ↑ Frumusanu, Andrei. "The Apple iPhone 11, 11 Pro & 11 Pro Max Review: Performance, Battery, & Camera Elevated". www.anandtech.com. Archived from the original on September 6, 2020. Retrieved October 20, 2019.
- ↑ Zafar, Ramish (September 10, 2019). "Apple A13 For iPhone 11 Has 8.5 Billion Transistors, Quad-Core GPU". Wccftech. Archived from the original on October 14, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
- ↑ Introducing iPhone 11 Pro — Apple Youtube Video, archived from the original on October 15, 2020, retrieved September 11, 2019
- ↑ "iPhone 11 - Technical Specifications". support.apple.com. Retrieved October 24, 2021.
- ↑ Frumusanu, Andrei. "The Apple A13 SoC: Lightning & Thunder". AnandTech. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019. Retrieved October 16, 2019.