Computing · 2010

Smartphone SoC (Apple A4)

A whole computer on one low-power chip for phones.

Apple's A4 put an ARM CPU, graphics and memory controller on one chip for the iPhone 4 and iPad. Custom systems-on-chip became the norm for phones.

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people Latest: 112 per 100 people (2025) Source: Our World in Data

Transistors per microprocessor Latest: 58.2B transistors (2021) Source: Our World in Data