A20 Pro: What's new in Apple's first 2nm iPhone chip
What's the story
Apple has unveiled its latest A20 Pro chip, the first smartphone chip built on a 2nm architecture. The tech giant introduced the revolutionary chip in its iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Duo models. Apple has touted the A20 Pro as "an exceptional chip that sets a new bar for mobile computing."
Performance boost
A20 Pro chip features a 6-core CPU design
The A20 Pro chip features a 6-core CPU design, including two new super cores that are up to 20% faster than their predecessors.
Apple has dubbed these "desktop class" cores as "the fastest in any smartphone." The chip also comes with four new efficiency cores for improved performance.
The redesigned GPU of the A20 Pro features a 7-core layout, which Apple says offers up to 40% faster graphics performance and increased memory bandwidth.
AI capabilities
Neural accelerators for enhanced AI capabilities
The A20 Pro chip also comes with new neural accelerators integrated into the GPU, offering twice the FP8 performance of its predecessor. This enables the chip to run large language models directly on the device.
The chip also features an additional Neural Engine, bringing its total core count to 32.
Apple claims this redesigned Neural Engine delivers double the compute power of its predecessor and supports 8-bit floating point math for advanced on-device models.
Heat dissipation
Thermal management for optimal performance
Apple has stressed the importance of effective thermal management in the iPhone 18 Pro to unlock the chip's maximum performance.
The company has redesigned the chip's silicon packaging, calling it "custom packaging inspired by our M-series chips," which connects the silicon and memory directly to a vapor chamber for improved thermal performance.
This design ensures efficient heat dissipation, allowing users to sustain high-performance levels without overheating issues.
Performance comparison
Sustained performance improvements over generations
Apple has also compared the sustained performance of the A20 Pro chip with its predecessors.
The company claims that the iPhone 18 Pro's A20 Pro offers 40% more sustained performance than the A19 Pro in iPhone 17 Pro, and twice the sustained performance as compared to the A18 Pro chip in iPhone 16 Pro.