The iPhone 16 sequence introduced Apple’s new A18 Bionic and A18 Professional chips. There was hypothesis that the “Professional” chip solely had a bonus within the GPU and CPU clock speeds. Nevertheless, die pictures on the Apple A18 and A18 Professional SoCs confirmed that their designs are completely different, or at the very least greater than anticipated.

Apple was the primary smartphone firm to implement 3nm chips with the Bionic A17 within the iPhone 15 sequence. Nevertheless, solely iPhone 15 Professional and iPhone 15 Professional Max customers loved this. The Cupertino large fell again on the previous-generation A15 chip for the vanilla and Plus iPhone 15. That is most likely the rationale for the dearth of Apple Intelligence assist on these fashions. Apparently, Apple was not planning to leap on the cellular AI bandwagon anytime quickly, however plans modified.

Widespread facets between the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Professional chips

For the iPhone 16 sequence, Apple carried out redesigned next-generation A18 SoCs in all fashions. Nonetheless, the corporate developed an ordinary and a Professional model. Each share the identical TSMC 3nm manufacturing course of (N3E). Each CPUs combine 6x cores, with 2x high-performance cores for essentially the most demanding duties and 4x high-efficiency cores for extra frequent ones.

In addition they use the identical InFO-PoP (Built-in Fan-Out Bundle-on-Bundle) expertise. In keeping with TSMC, InFO-PoP is a packaging methodology that features “high-density RDL (Re-Distribution Layer) and TIV (By means of InFO By way of) for high-density interconnect and efficiency.” This methodology stacks DRAM immediately on prime of the SoC die, leading to a smaller chip however with extra highly effective efficiency and higher thermal management.

As well as, the InFO-PoP approach facilitates the alternative of the DRAM package deal, leading to probably higher and cheaper repairability. The 2 chips additionally share the identical GPU and Neural Engine, at the very least on paper.

That is the place Apple’s A18 and A18 Professional SoCs are completely different

That stated, the die pictures of each Apple A18 SoCs reveal a key space the place they’re completely different. The pictures present that the A18 Professional chip has extra transistors. In SoCs, larger transistor density means extra processing energy. Every new technology of chip manufacturing processes seeks not solely to miniaturize present {hardware} however to combine extra transistors in much less house. In flip, a smaller chip may also end in much less vitality consumption.

That is on prime of the already anticipated variations in clock speeds for the CPU and GPU. The A18 Professional even integrates an extra core in its GPU (5x cores vs. 6x cores), which might be particularly noticeable in duties associated to 3D rendering or VR/AR. Moreover, the Neural Engine in Apple’s newest “Professional” chip is best, so the iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max needs to be extra environment friendly when working on-device AI processing.

Principally, on paper, the facility distinction between the Apple A18 and A18 Professional is wider than anticipated. Nonetheless, the usual A18 chip is already fairly highly effective, and most customers received’t even get to squeeze out all of its potential.