Apple Silicon Subsystems

These pages detail the specifics of a particular platform subsystem. They are loosely categorised by function.

Generalised overviews

• Introduction to Apple Silicon
• Accelerator Engines

Coprocessors and accelerators

• HW-AGX - Apple's PowerVR-derived tile-based deferred renderer
• HW-SEP - The Secure Enclave, Apple's crypto/biometrics/security engine

Platform control logic

• HW-AIC - Apple Interrupt Controller
• HW-WDT - Watchdog Timer
• HW-SMC - System Management Controller
• HW-ASC - Apple's Mailbox-like firmware interface

Platform initialisation and boot

• SW-Boot
• SW-MachO Boot Protocol
• HW-Memory map
• HW-SMP spin up
• FW:ADT (Apple Device Tree)
• SW-NVRAM

Application processors

• HW-ARM System Registers
• HW- SPRR and GXF
• HW-CPU debug registers
• HW-Apple Instructions

I/O

• HW-APCIe (Apple PCIe controller)
• HW-GPIO
• HW-Debug USB
• HW-USB PD
• SW-Storage

Peripherals

• HW-Camera - Broadcom camera and ISP