Last week we published our iPhone XS and XS Max review, in which went into great depth into the various aspects of the phones, especially into the section regarding the new-fangled A12’s CPU performance. However I wanted to dig a bit deeper into CPU performance than I had time for in the initial review, which Im finally able to get around to now. The A12’s small cores were especially something I wanted to have in the article, as Apples small cores havent been very well investigated to date. As it’s still an important topic, I’m posting that part here as a pipeline as well as integrating it as an additional page in the review:

The A12 Tempest µarch: A Fierce Small Core

Apple had first introduced a “small” CPU core alongside the Twister cores in the A10 SoC, powering the iPhone 7 generation. We’ve never really had the opportunity to dissect these cores, and over the years there was a bit of mystery around them as to what they’re capable of.