Developer Steven Troughton-Smith has discovered a possible code-name for a set of high-performance CPU cores to be found inside Apple’s in-house designed “A11” system-on-a-chip that will power iPhone X and iPhone 8/Plus: “Mistral”.
He didn’t provide any further information so we don’t know whether the code-name references the high-performance CPU cores or their slower, low-powered counterparts.
All Apple-designed chips since 2013’s A7 system-on-a-chip to 2017’s A10 (and their “X” variants) have used different code-names for the CPU microarchitecture.
These CPU code-names are based on various types of winds, here’s a rundown:
- Apple A7—“Cyclone”
- Apple A8—“Typhoon”
- Apple A9—“Twister”
- Apple A10—“Hurricane” and “Zephyr”
The A10 (along with its A10X variant used in iPad Pros) is the first Apple-designed chip that has two high-performance cores (“Hurricane”) and two energy-efficient cores (“Zephyr”).
Given mistral is a strong cold north-westerly wind that blows through the Rhône valley and southern France towards the Mediterranean, this is in line with Apple’s previous CPU names.
In Spanish, mistral is a type of quite violent wind.
Thoughts?