Apple today revealed the A20 Pro chip in the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, built on a brand new architecture using 2nm process technology.
Apple described the A20 Pro as "an exceptional chip that sets a new bar for mobile computing." The chip has a 6-core CPU design with two new super cores that Apple says are up to 20% faster, calling them "desktop class" and "the fastest in any smartphone," alongside four new efficiency cores.
The GPU has also been redesigned with a 7-core layout that Apple says delivers up to 40% faster graphics performance and increased memory bandwidth. New neural accelerators built into the GPU offer twice the FP8 performance of the previous generation, which helps the chip run large language models locally on the device.
The A20 Pro features an additional Neural Engine, bringing the total core count to 32. The company says the redesigned Neural Engine delivers 2x the compute of its predecessor, is more efficient, and now supports 8-bit floating point math. Apple called the A20 Pro "the ultimate chip for running advanced on-device models," adding that it ships with "the widest memory interface we've ever shipped in an iPhone."
The company said effective thermal management in the iPhone 18 Pro is critical to unlocking the chip's maximum performance, since efficient heat dissipation determines how much of that performance can be sustained. To support this, Apple redesigned the chip's silicon packaging, describing it as "custom packaging inspired by our M-series chips" that connects the silicon and memory directly to the vapor chamber for improved thermal performance.
Apple compared sustained performance directly against previous generations, citing 40% more sustained performance from the iPhone 18 Pro's A20 Pro compared to the A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro, and twice the sustained performance compared to the A18 Pro chip in the iPhone 16 Pro.
This article, "Apple Unveils A20 Pro as First 2nm Smartphone Chip" first appeared on MacRumors.com
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