According to information, Apple is manufacturing the A16 chip for the upcoming iPhone in the same process as the A15 Bionic chip for the iPhone 13, with the company providing a greater performance leap for the M2 chip designed for the next generation of Mac devices.
Meanwhile, the company is developing another version of the M1 chip that uses more powerful cores than the A15 Bionic, according to leaker known as ShrimpApplePro.
The leaker shared information that reveals Apple’s plans for the upcoming A16 and M2 chips, as well as the new version in the M1 family of chips.
The A16 chip is based on the 5 nm manufacturing process from Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Corporation, such as the A14, A15 and M1 chips.
Previous reports were not clear about whether the A16 chip was manufactured using the most advanced 4nm process from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation.
A report from DigiTimes claimed that Apple plans to use the 4 nanometer N4P manufacturing process from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturer. But N4P is an improved version of the third generation of the 5nm manufacturing process process.
On the other hand, the leaker said that the A16 chip uses Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation’s N5P process. This suggests that the A16 chip may be a less substantial upgrade than previously thought.
According to the information, the improvements to the A16 chip come through minor improvements to the CPU, GPU, and memory.
And based on a report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the leaker says that the A16 chip contains LPDDR 5 memory.
LPDDR 5 memory is up to one and a half times faster and up to 30% more power efficient than the LPDDR 4X memory paired with the A15 chip in the iPhone 13.
Clearly, the M2 chip could be Apple’s first chip made using the 3nm process, bypassing the entire 4nm process. The M2 chip is believed to be Apple’s first dedicated ARMv9 processor.
Apple develops another version of the M1 chip
Apple is also developing another version of the M1, which includes updated cores. The M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra chips use energy-saving Icestorm cores and high-performance Firestorm cores, such as the A14 Bionic chip.
Instead, the new version of the M1 is based on the A15 Bionic. It includes energy-saving Blizzard cores and high-performance Avalanche cores.
This chip could be introduced in the next generation of Mac Pros, which the company explicitly promoted earlier this year.
The M1 Ultra, a double version of the M1 Max with a 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU, is currently Apple’s most powerful chip.
It is believed that Apple is developing a more powerful chip than the M1 Ultra to power the first Mac Pro device based on its processors. The M1 Ultra in Mac Studio is faster than the 28-core Intel Xeon chip. As a result, Mac Pro needs to be higher performing.
And if the new version of the M1 is not intended for the Mac Pro, this new chip may be a variant of the standard M1 chip.
Kuo previously said that the 2022 MacBook Air retains the M1 chip instead of featuring the M2 chip.
As a result, the new version of the M1 is likely to be about the entry level. And that’s rather than being related to the higher-level version of the Mac Pro with an Apple processor.
Introducing devices with new versions of the standard M1 chip helps the company buy time before launching Macs with the M2 chip.
Reports claim that the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max include an A16 chip. While the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max still work with the A15 Bionic chip.
The M2 chip may also come with the redesigned MacBook Air later this year. Before it hits a handful of new Macs, and possibly the next generation iPad Pro.
