A new performance controller decides in real-time which pair of cores should run for a given task in order to optimize for performance or battery life. Apple claims that the high-performance cores are 40% faster than Apple's previous A9 processor and that the two high-efficiency cores consume 20% of the power of the high performance Hurricane cores they are used when performing simple tasks, such as checking email. Thus, the A10 Fusion appears to software and benchmarks as a dual core chip.

Unlike most implementations of big.LITTLE, such as the Snapdragon 820 or Exynos 8890, only one core type can be active at a time, either the high-performance or low-power cores, but not both. As the first Apple-produced quad-core SoC, it has two high-performance cores designed for demanding tasks like gaming, while also featuring two energy-efficient Apple-designed 64-bit 1.05 GHz cores codenamed Zephyr at 0.78 mm 2 for normal tasks in a configuration similar to the ARM big.LITTLE technology.

It features two Apple-designed 64-bit 2.34 GHz ARMv8-A cores called Hurricane, each with a die size of 4.18 mm 2. The A10 (internally, T8010) is built on TSMC's 16 nm FinFET process and contains 3.28 billion transistors (including the GPU and caches) on a die size of 125 mm 2. The latest software updates for the iPhone 7 & 7 Plus including the iPod Touch 7th generation variants systems using this chip are iOS 15.7.3, released on Decemas they were discontinued with the release of iOS 16 in 2022, while updates for the iPad ( 6th & 7th generation) variants systems using this chip are still supported. On May 10, 2022, the iPod Touch 7th generation was discontinued, ending production of A10 Fusion chips. Apple states that it has 40% greater CPU performance and 50% greater graphics performance compared to its predecessor, the Apple A9. The A10 is the first Apple-designed quad-core SoC, with two high-performance cores and two energy-efficient cores. It first appeared in the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus which were introduced on September 7, 2016, and is used in the sixth generation iPad, seventh generation iPad, and seventh generation iPod Touch. The Apple A10 Fusion is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC), designed by Apple Inc.

Zephyr mouse review