Apple A4 vs Intel Atom Z2420

Let's find out which one of Intel Atom Z2420 and Apple A4 is of a more recent generation, and what segment it belongs to.

• Name
  Intel Atom Z2420 Apple A4
• Family
  Intel Atom Apple A series
• CPU group
  Intel Atom Z2400/Z2600 Apple A4
• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Generation
  3 4

In this block we are going to compare Intel Atom Z2420 vs Apple A4 by main technical specifications: number of cores and threads, base and maximum frequencies, process technology and cache size. The higher these specifications are, the more powerful your CPU will be.

• CPU Cores / Threads
  1 / 2 1 / 1
• Core architecture
  normal normal
• Cores
  1x 1x Cortex-A8
• Hyperthreading / SMT
  Yes No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Frequency
  1.20 GHz 0.80 GHz
• Turbo Frequency (1 Core)
  -- 1.00 GHz

Common specifications for integrated graphics cards in Intel Atom Z2420 and Apple A4 along with supported interfaces and connection options. This block has no effect on the final efficiency of the CPU.

• GPU name
  PowerVR SGX540 PowerVR SGX535
• GPU frequency
  0.40 GHz
• GPU (Turbo)
  No turbo No turbo
• Execution units
  1 2
• Shader
  0 2
• Max. displays
  1 1
• Direct X
  10.1 10.1
• Technology
  45nm 65nm
• Release date
  Q1/2008 Q4/2007

Let's compare the support of video codecs between Intel Atom Z2420 and Apple A4. Hardware support of video decoding by embedded graphics cards directly affects the speed and quality of rendering videos.

• h265 / HEVC (8 bit)
  No No
• h265 / HEVC (10 bit)
  No No
• h264
  No No
• VP8
  No No
• VP9
  No No
• AV1
  No No
• AVC
  No No
• VC-1
  No No
• JPEG
  No No

To choose the best model between Intel Atom Z2420 and Apple A4 you need to pay special attention to memory type, clock frequency, multi-channel features, and PCIe version. The higher these numbers are, the better your CPU will be. Keep in mind that the maximum memory and frequency may also depend on the model of the motherboard.

• Memory type
  LPDDR2-800 LPDDR2-800
• Max. Memory
  1 GB
• Memory channels
  2 (Dual Channel) 1 (Single Channel)
• Bandwidth
  6.4 GB/s --
• ECC
  No No
• AES-NI
  No No

Let's find out what TDP value would be better for Intel Atom Z2420 or Apple A4? The Thermal Design Power (TDP) indicates the maximum amount of heat that should be dissipated by the chip cooling system. However, the value of TDP gives only a rough indication of the real power consumption of the CPU.

• TDP (PL1)
  3 W
• Tjunction max.
  90 \xc2\xb0C --

Here you can find a comparison of 2nd and 3rd level cache sizes for Intel Atom Z2420 and Apple A4 CPUs along with a list of ISA extensions.

• Technology
  32 nm 45 nm
• Chip design
  Monolithic Chiplet
• Socket
  BGA 617 N/A
• L2-Cache
  0.50 MB 0.51 MB
• Architecture
  Penwell A4
• Operating systems
  iOS
• Virtualization
  None None
• Instruction set (ISA)
  x86-64 (64 bit) ARMv7-A32 (32 bit)
• ISA extensions
  MMX, SSE3, SSSE3
• Release date
  Q1/2013 Q2/2010