Difference Between Apple A4 and Qualcomm Snapdragon S2

Apple A4 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 Speed, Performance | Qualcomm Snapdragon 7X30 (MSM7230, MSM7630), 8X55 (MSM8255, MSM8655)
 

This article compares two System-on-Chips (SoC), Apple A4 and Qualcomm Snapdragon S2, marketed by Apple and Qualcomm 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 and the first mobile device to use Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 series SoC was HTC Vision released in October 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 Snapdragon S2 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) and both used TSMC’s 45nm technology for fabrication.

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 iPhone4 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 to pack DDR2 memory blocks (although it did not contain memory module packed originally). The sizes of memory packaged varied among different devices such as 2x128MB in iPad, 2x256MB in iPhone4.

Qualcomm Snapdragon S2

Although Qualcomm has released a large number of Snapdragon SoCs over the last three years under different trade names, such as MSM7230, MSM7630 etc, in August 2011, they decided to put all of them under four simple names, namely Snapdragon S1, S2, S3 and S4, so that users can better understand their products and avoid confusion. Therefore, large lists of SoCs originally named individually are put together into the above. Following are the SoCs covered under S2:

Qualcomm Snapdragon S2: 7X30 [MSM7230, MSM7630], 8X55 [MSM8255, MSM8655] 

Snapdragon S2 is driven by Qualcomm’s own Scorpion CPU (aka processor) and are based on Qualcomm Andreno GPU. Although Scorpion uses ARM’s v7 ISA, they do not use ARM’s CPU design such as the popular ARM Cortex series for their processor design. Snapdragon S2 SoCs have Qualcomm Scorpion single core CPUs, which are typically clocked at 800MHz-1.4GHz. The GPU of choice for these SoCs are Qualcomm’s Adreno 205. Snapdragon S2 has both L1 cache (instruction and data) and L2 cache hierarchies and allows packing up to 1GB low-power DDR2 memory modules.

Snapdragon S2 SoCs were first seen in the second quarter of 2010. The first mobile phone to use a Snapdragon S2 SoC was HTC Vision in October 2010. From then, a large number of mobile devices have used SoC from this group and to name a few: LG Optimus7, HTC Desire, HP Veer, HTC Ignite, HTC Prime, Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro, and Motorola Triumph.

A comparison between Apple A4 and Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 is tabulated below.

Summary

In summary, both Apple A4 and Qualcomm Snapdragon S2 have comparable features. Both of them used similar CPU architecture [same ISA, different hardware architecture] (with potentially faster clocking frequency in Snapdragon S2). In the GPU section, Adreno 205 is known to outperform PowerVR SGX535.

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