Yearly, Apple declares a brand new era iPhone. Typically it comes with a model new design, generally not. However the one factor we all know for positive is that the brand new iPhone will characteristic a brand new chip – not less than that was the case till now. Current rumors counsel that some iPhone 14 fashions will maintain the A15 Bionic chip from this 12 months’s fashions. However why would Apple do this?
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What the rumors are saying
The well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported this month that solely the high-end iPhone 14 Professional and iPhone 14 Professional Max fashions can have the brand new “A16” chip, whereas the mid-range iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max fashions (the mini mannequin is predicted to get replaced by a brand new 6.7-inch telephone) can be outfitted with the A15 Bionic chip.
9to5Mac corroborated Kuo’s report with unbiased sources, which additionally counsel that two of this 12 months’s 4 new iPhone fashions can be powered by the A15 Bionic chip, whereas the opposite two can have the subsequent era Apple Silicon chip. Each Kuo and 9to5Mac’s sources additionally counsel that every one new iPhones can have 6GB of RAM, whereas presently the most affordable fashions include 4GB of RAM.
So that is what the iPhone 14 lineup will seem like:
- 6.1-inch iPhone 14 with A15 chip
- 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max with A15 chip
- 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Professional with A16 chip
- 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Professional with A16 chip
However would Apple launch a brand new flagship system with an outdated chip? It seems that the corporate has achieved this earlier than, and it’s all about advertising and marketing.
The technique behind Apple’s chip names
Because the iPhone 4 was launched in 2010 with the primary Apple-custom chip known as “A4,” the brand new chips that got here after have all the time adopted the identical nomenclature. We have now had A5, A6, A7, and the record goes on.
Nevertheless, in 2012, Apple needed to create an much more highly effective chip for the brand new third-generation iPad, which was the primary to have a high-resolution Retina show. This chip was based mostly totally on the A5 chip from the iPhone 4s and iPad 2, however the brand new model had a quad-core GPU whereas the unique had a dual-core GPU.
To distinguish the brand new chip and make it sound like one thing extra highly effective, Apple named it A5X. Since then, all new chips created particularly for the iPad have had the “X” of their identify as a method to point out that they’re quicker because of the extra highly effective GPU and extra RAM. This technique was used till 2018, when Apple launched the third era iPad Professional with the A12X chip.
In 2020, as a substitute of making a extra highly effective model of the A13 chip for the brand new iPad Professional, Apple merely reused the identical A12X chip from the 2018 iPad Professional, however this time with an additional GPU core enabled. That change was sufficient for Apple to rebrand the chip as “A12Z Bionic.”
The M1 and a brand new period for Apple Silicon
When Apple lastly determined emigrate Macs from Intel processors to their very own silicon, they as soon as once more wanted a robust identify to emphasise that these chips are much more highly effective and totally different from something the corporate has achieved earlier than – so that they got here up with the M1 chip.
Nevertheless, on the within, M1 is principally what Apple would identify A14X up to now, because the chip discovered inside the newest iMac and MacBook Air is basically the iPhone 12’s A14 chip with extra CPU and GPU cores. Apple then created extra highly effective M1 Professional, M1 Max, and M1 Extremely variants, all based mostly on the identical A14 chip.
The “M1” identify has turn out to be extraordinarily interesting, or don’t you suppose that having an iPad Air with the M1 chip sounds extra superb than one thing with an A14X chip? My level is, Apple makes use of advertising and marketing in its favor to make even the smallest modifications into one thing larger, and it may possibly simply do this with iPhone chips.
Which chip can be within the iPhone 14?
As I not too long ago famous in one other article, Apple presently has two totally different variations of the A15 Bionic chip, though they don’t promote them utilizing totally different names. The common A15 Bionic chip used within the iPhone 13 and iPad mini 6 fashions has a six-core CPU and a five-core GPU with 4GB of RAM. Nevertheless, iPhone 13 Professional fashions have an enhanced A15 Bionic chip with a six-core GPU and 6GB of RAM.
This additional GPU core offers the iPhone 13 Professional about 34% extra graphics energy when in comparison with the iPhone 13, whereas the 6GB of RAM ensures that extra apps can stay within the background for longer.
We don’t know why Apple would use the A15 chip within the subsequent era iPhone. This might be associated to part shortages or the corporate merely realized that almost all common shoppers wouldn’t even discover the distinction between a model new A16 chip and the present A15.
Nevertheless, once we say that some fashions of the iPhone 14 can have the A15 chip, it doesn’t imply that it’ll have the identical A15 chip because the iPhone 13. Apple would possibly use the high-end model of its chip with a greater GPU and 6GB of RAM and name it A15X, similar to it did with the A12Z chip within the 2020 iPad Professional.
Apple may even name it the A16 chip and create a brand new chip with a special structure named A16 Professional, because it has been doing with Mac chips. The Apple Watch Sequence 7 has the identical CPU because the Apple Watch Sequence 6, however the chips are named “Apple S6” and “Apple S7” resulting from minor inner modifications which were made to the SoC.
Regardless of the chip contained in the iPhone 14 is, Apple’s advertising and marketing workforce definitely has one thing in thoughts to make it sound like a model new factor.
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