Difference Between Apple A4 and NVIDIA Tegra 2

Apple A4 vs NVIDIA Tegra 2 | NVIDIA Tegra 2 vs Apple A4 Speed, Performance
 

This article compares two System-on-Chips (SoC), Apple A4 and NVIDIA Tegra 2, marketed by Apple and NVIDIA respectively targeting handheld devices. In a Layperson’s term, a SoC is a computer on a single IC (Integrated Circuit, aka chip). Technically, a SoC is an IC that integrates typical components on a computer (such as microprocessor, memory, input/output) and other systems that cater electronic and radio functionalities. Apple released its A4 processor in March 2010 with its inaugural tablet PC, Apple iPad. NVIDIA released Tegra 2 in the first quarter of 2010.

Typically, the major components of a SoC are its CPU (Central Processing Unit) and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). The CPUs in both A4 and Tegra 2 are based on ARM’s (Advanced RICS – Reduced Instruction Set Computer – Machine, developed by ARM Holdings) v7 ISA (Instruction Set Architecture, the one that is used as the starting place of designing a processor).

Apple A4

A4 was first commercially produced in March 2010, and Apple used it for their Apple iPad, the first tablet PC marketed by Apple. Following the deployment in iPad, Apple A4 was later deployed in iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G. A4’s CPU is designed by Apple based on ARM Cortex-A8 processor (that uses ARM v7 ISA), and its GPU is based on PowerVR’s SGX535 graphics processor. The CPU in A4 is clocked at a speed of 1GHz, and the GPU’s clock speed is a mystery (was not revealed by Apple). A4 has both L1 cache (instruction and data) and L2 cache hierarchies, and it allows packing DDR2 memory blocks (although it did not contain memory module packed originally). The sizes of memory packaged vary among different devices such as 2x128MB in iPad and 2x256MB, in iPhone4.

NVIDIA Tegra 2 (Series)

NVIDIA, originally a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) manufacturing company [claimed to have invented GPUs in the late nineties] have recently moved into the mobile computing market, where NVIDIA’s System on Chips (SoC) are deployed in phones, tablets and other handheld devices. Tegra is a SoC series developed by NVIDIA targeting deployment in the mobile market. Tegra 2 series SoCs were first marketed in early 2010, and the first set devices that deployed them is some not so famous tablet PCs. The first deployment of the same in a smart phone came in February 2011 when LG released its Optimus 2X mobile phone. Following which a large number of other mobile devices have used Tegra 2 series SoCs, some of which are Motorola Atrix 4G, Motorola Photon, LG Optimus Pad, Motorola Xoom, Lenevo ThinkPad Tablet and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Tegra 2 series SoCs (technically MPSoC, due to the multi-processor CPU deployed) has ARM Cotex-A9 based dual core CPUs (that uses ARM v7 ISA), which are typically clocked at 1GHz. Targeting smaller die area, NVIDIA did not support NEON instructions (ARM’s Advanced SIMD extension) in these CPUs. The GPU of choice was NVIDIA’s Ultra Low Power (ULP) GeForce, which has eight cores packed into it (it is not a surprise for a company famous for their multi to many core GPUs). The GPUs are clocked between 300MHz to 400MHz in different chips in the series. Tegra 2 has both L1 cache (instruction and data – private for each CPU core) and L2 cache (shared between both CPU cores) hierarchies, and it allows packing up to 1GB DDR2 memory modules.

A comparison between Apple A4 and NVIDIA Tegra 2 Series is tabulated below.

Summary

In summary, even though both Apple A4 and NVIDIA Tegra 2 series SoCs were introduced around the same time, Tegra2’s features are impressive and better in most fronts. Starting from the CPU (dual core in Tegra 2 vs. single core in A4) and then the GPU (SGX535 vs. GeForce 8core), for both what are deployed by Tegra 2 are known to perform better. A drawback in Tegra 2 chips is that they do not support NEON instruction set, while A4 does. In the cache hierarchy, Tegra 2 has a larger L2 cache compared to A4 (512kB in A4 vs. 1MB in Tegra2). Therefore, NVIDIA Tegra 2 outperforms Apple A4 in most of the major aspects.