Every year, Apple ushers in a brand new A-series system-on-chip to pair with the most recent iPhones. This yr, the corporate has taken a wholly new path. The brand new A16 processor is reserved just for the “Professional” mannequin iPhones, whereas the usual iPhone 14 fashions get the identical A15 we had been launched to final yr (the 5-core GPU model that was discovered within the iPhone 13 Professional fashions).
The this-year and last-year cut up just isn’t the one distinctive factor. The A16 is, greater than common, a comparatively minor evolution on the earlier SoC. There are just a few adjustments to make certain, however the common consumer is unlikely to note them. The variations between A15 and A16 seem like comparatively gentle in comparison with Apple’s typical yearly cadence.
Earlier this yr, I made some predictions concerning the A16 that had been led by assumptions that actually didn’t all pan out. Whereas just a few issues had been true, the efficiency uplift within the A16 is about half of what I predicted, and there are fewer main technological enhancements seen. Right here’s what’s new within the A16, and what you’ll be able to anticipate from Apple’s first “Professional-only” A sequence chip.
What’s modified from A15 Bionic
At first blush, the A16 appears architecturally just like the A15. There are two high-performance CPU cores and 4 high-efficiency cores, 5 GPU cores, and 16 Neural Engine cores to run machine studying and AI algorithms. Similar to the A15.
The chip is manufactured on a brand new “4 nanometer” course of from TSMC, in accordance with Apple, making it the primary such processor in a smartphone. In line with Nikei Asia’s teardown, this can be a dear change. The positioning discovered that the chip prices “over 2.4 occasions greater than the A15 model used within the iPhone 13 Professional Max launched final yr.” The positioning reviews that Apple is paying $110 for every chip, which has raised the iPhone’s manufacturing prices “to an all-time excessive.” To its credit score, Apple hasn’t elevated the value of the iPhone 14 Professional fashions over final yr.
It’s value noting, nonetheless, that TSMC’s “N4” course of just isn’t a 4nm course of within the truest sense with TSMC itself even calling it “an enhanced model of N5 expertise.” Whereas it’s a extra superior course of than earlier A sequence processors, it isn’t an actual next-generation silicon manufacturing course of; you’ll have to attend for the 3nm course of subsequent yr for such a factor.
The A16 chip is exlclusive to the iPhone 14 Professional,.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
The transistor rely has gone up just a few p.c to 16 billion (from 15 billion), and it’s possible that the majority of that greater funds is spent within the new show engine (which manages the iPhone 14 Professional’s show all the way down to 1Hz in always-on show mode and may crank it as much as 2,000 nits in vibrant daylight), reminiscence controller, and picture sign processor.
As for the extra general-purpose elements of the processor, they appear to be solely barely modified. The high-performance CPU cores carry the code identify “Everest” and may clock as much as 3.46 GHz, a roughly 7% increase over the A15’s most of three.24 GHz for its “Avalanche” cores. The high-efficiency cores are code-named “Sawtooth” and clocked as much as 2.02 GHz, which is sort of the identical pace the two.01 GHz of the A15’s 2.01 GHz “Blizzard” cores. Whereas these cores carry a brand new identify, the architectural adjustments seem minor at finest, as they don’t ship efficiency exterior the anticipated uplift from the rise in clock pace.
The Neural Engine continues to be 16 cores, simply as within the A15. Apple says it performs as much as 17 trillion operations per second, which is roughly an 8% enhance over the 15.8 trillion of the A15. I feel it’s possible the identical design simply clocked slightly greater.
Maybe probably the most important change is the swap to LPDDR5 reminiscence, which ought to present 50 p.c extra reminiscence bandwidth than the LPDDR4x reminiscence within the A15. Apple truly made the swap to LPDDR5 within the M1 processor line (on the M1 Professional, Max, and Extremely), which is predicated on the A14 chip structure–the one actual shock right here is that the corporate waited this lengthy to do it of their iPhone-bound chips. There could also be some very particular circumstances the place a job is totally restricted by reminiscence bandwidth on the A15, by which case the A16 ought to carry out loads higher.
So at first blush, we’ve got what seems to be basically an A15 that clocks greater, with a brand new show engine and maybe picture sign processor. We’ve learn reviews that there are new safety measures within the processor’s ROM; unsurprising, contemplating how laborious Apple works on each the {hardware} and software program aspect to make their units troublesome to hack.
CPU efficiency
Provided that the CPU structure hasn’t modified a lot, however simply runs at a clock pace as much as 7 p.c greater (and with extra reminiscence bandwidth out there), we should always anticipate most CPU benchmarks to indicate efficiency good points of 10 p.c or much less.
A fast take a look at Geekbench 5 numbers exhibits us that, certainly, most single-core CPU efficiency seems to have gone up by round 8-10 p.c over the A15. Multi-core efficiency fares slightly higher, but it surely’s possible that these exams are extra simply in a position to overwhelm the chip’s caches and would due to this fact get some profit from the elevated reminiscence bandwidth.
GPU efficiency
The A16 Bionic has 5 GPU cores, simply because the higher-end A15 does, and I don’t consider there have been any architectural adjustments. However high-end 3D graphics are usually very demanding on reminiscence bandwidth, and I might anticipate the swap to LPDDR5 reminiscence to have a major impression right here. I don’t have any actual perception into the GPU clock speeds, however it could be cheap to anticipate that the cores can clock round 7 p.c greater, simply because the excessive efficiency CPU cores do.
Looking at one of the strenuous 3D graphics benchmarks, 3DMark Wild Life, efficiency varies from round 7 p.c sooner on simpler modes to round 19 p.c within the “Wild Life Excessive Limitless” check. That’s a great enchancment, and consistent with what I might anticipate from a gentle clock pace enhance and large reminiscence bandwidth increase.
When utilizing the GPU to carry out general-purpose computations, as examined within the GeekBench compute rating (see above), the efficiency uplift is within the 7-8 p.c vary.
A15+ can be a extra trustworthy identify
There’s little question that the A16 just isn’t merely a “binned” model of the A15 (“binning” is when chips which might be examined to carry out higher in manufacturing are separated and offered as a special mannequin). It is a new chip. However there aren’t any main architectural overhauls right here that I can see, simply minor revisions to enhance most clock pace and energy effectivity. That is much less of a leap over final yr’s mannequin than we’re used to seeing in Apple’s yearly iPhone revamp, a reality that’s solely underscored by the truth that the usual iPhone 14 fashions are nonetheless utilizing final yr’s A15 whereas nonetheless offering vital options like Motion Mode, Photonic Engine, and 4K Cinematic mode.
Apple
Apple didn’t promote any explicit function of the processor as “new” apart from the show engine (which is required to handle the iPhone 14 Professional’s always-on show and 1Hz refresh charge), and in reality marketed it most instantly in opposition to Android telephones and the A13, it’s three-year-old flagship. The efficiency charts simply don’t look very spectacular with a 7-10 p.c efficiency bump.
To that finish, I really feel like Apple in all probability shouldn’t have given this chip the A16 moniker. In most ways in which matter, it’s a tuned-up A15. Even the brand new “4nm” manufacturing course of is finest described as a modified 5nm course of. It’s in all probability unreasonable to anticipate groundbreaking developments yearly, with totally new architectures delivering 20% efficiency enhancements. The occasional “tune-up” yr is okay, particularly since Apple has such a commanding lead in smartphone efficiency proper now. However the naming ought to replicate that, and a title like A15+ or A15 Professional appears like a extra trustworthy illustration of this chip.
