Apple A9X

Apple A9X
Apple A9X chip
General information
LaunchedSeptember 9, 2015
DiscontinuedJune 5, 2017
Designed byApple Inc.
Common manufacturer
Product codeAPL1021
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate2.16 GHz to 2.26 GHz
Cache
L1 cachePer core: 64 KB instruction + 64 KB data
L2 cache3 MB shared
Architecture and classification
ApplicationMobile
Technology node16FF+ nm (TSMC)
MicroarchitectureTwister
Instruction setARMv8-A: A64, A32, T32
Physical specifications
Cores
  • 2
GPUCustom PowerVR Series7XT (12 cores)
Products, models, variants
Variant
History
PredecessorApple A8X
SuccessorApple A10X

The Apple A9X is a 64-bit ARM architecture-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. It first appeared in the iPad Pro, which was announced on September 9, 2015 and was released on November 11, 2015. The A9X has the M9 motion coprocessor embedded in it, something not seen in previous chip generations. It is a variant of the A9 and Apple claims that it has 80% more CPU performance and twice the GPU performance of its predecessor, the A8X.

The latest software update for the iPad Pro 12.9 1st generation & 9.7 using this chip was iPadOS 16.7.9, released on July 29, 2024, as it was discontinued with the release of iPadOS 17 in 2023 due to hardware limitations of the A9X. It is expected to continue receiving security updates for some period of time.