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Nope. There’s a new chip coming, with the first major internal rev number in quite awhile, suitable for both MacBook and ipad pro. Coming soon.
I assume you mean a new line of processors suitable for heavier work loads. Splitting the processors in into iPhone processor AXX and and the "rest" (iPad, MacBook, iMac) make good sense. Will the GPU and ML subunits be part of the CPU in a new line of processors or will we see a more modular approach?
 
Strange that peoples expect improvement on CPU speed and everything else in every upgrade cycle.

General CPU speed in A12 and A13 is probably undetectable in 99% of the use cases.New features of the A13 chip for image processing plus better energy management is the only thing setting the it apart from A12 so not even iPhones processors make large jumps.

Have you bought a Mac/PC the last 10 years? Then you know of stagnation (boring for tech nerds) and longevity (good for everything else).
 
Very disappointed by this. I have the 2018 iPad Pro with the smart Keyboard. I have been using it as a laptop replacement, for work and everything I do. I love it. I was considering getting the new 2020 iPad pro just because I use it so much that it makes sense to upgrade even for just a minor improvement.

iPhone CPUs have been improving insanely fast every year compared to desktop CPUs. When the 2020 iPad Pro came the improvement was insane. But then now 2 years later the release something that is not even an improvement, just the same processor. Not smaller, not difference design, not improved performance.

I will pass on this one. Really hope for A14x later this year...
 
The 6GB RAM is the only meaningful upgrade. I was very much into buying the new iPad Pro but not with a 2y old tech in it. It’s ok for the iPhone 9 to reuse old components, but not for a Pro. The purpose of this iPad is to try the lidar before it goes mainstream with iPhone 12, and be ready for WWDC this June to demo it with iOS 14.
 
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Can you please elaborate more? Specifically why the new iPad fixes this blocker?

When they produce these chips they know ahead of time that there will be problems with the manufacturing and some of the chips will have problems. The number of chips that pass quality control testing is called the yield, which is what you've seen referred to on this thread. To increase yield, rather than throwing these chips away, they disable the part of the chip that has the defect (so if core 3 fails the test, it gets disabled. If two or more cores fail the test, the whole chip gets thrown away). Because Apple knows ahead of time what their expected yield is, they advertise it as a 7-core chip knowing that they will end up disabling one of the cores. If they only designed and produced a chip with 7 cores they would end up with lower yield (because they don't have that option of disabling a core anymore).

Now that apparently they've improved the manufacturing process they're able to produce all 8-cores at a high enough yield that they're selling it as an 8-core processor.
 
It’s basically just A12X refresh. Same processing power with 2018 A12X, just with extra features (extra GPU cores, more RAM, etc). Apple just lack of new fancy names, hence called it A12Z.
 
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So based on this information, if you have the 2018 iPad pro, this upgrade is pretty unimpressive.
Well I can’t see much of an issue here. This iPad isn’t meant to be an iPad Pro 2018 replacement 🤷🏻‍♂️
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So.. the thing that I bought last year has a GPU core purposefully disabled? Isnt that kind of like the battery thing they were sued for?
Are you serious ? 🤦🏻‍♂️
it is disabled because it isn’t working properly ...
You don’t know much about production yelds, doesn’t you ?
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As an 2018 iPad Pro user, I would like to activate the 8th core, please.
Most probably it is just a non working unit.
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Lol. You tried it, Apple! This update could have waited. Apple wants those $1,200 checks of yours — perfect time to release a new iPad while everyone is home. I’m joking. Apple would never do that. :)
Seriously... this iPad was on the production chain well before this pandemic exploded...
 
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At some point, I wish Apple allowed us to using all goodness iPad Pro processing power as additional render/compute engine slave when connected with Mac (e.g for Blender). iPad Pro has larger surface for better cooling, suitable for sustained longer task. It would be another plus of “Pro” device value.
 
So.. the thing that I bought last year has a GPU core purposefully disabled? Isnt that kind of like the battery thing they were sued for?
That's a standard practice all over the industry. You were sold an iPad with 7 GPU cores, and you received an iPad with 7 GPU cores. The more powerful the core, the lower the yield. So Apple had the choice of selling you an iPad with 8 much less powerful cores, that can be produced with a 99% yield. Or they could build a more powerful core, where each core has only 90% yield, but still has a very high yield if you only require 7 out of 8 cores to work. Overall, you get more power that way.

Of course if you find anywhere in writing that you were promised 8 GPU cores...
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So, in other words, the A12Z is what the A12X should have been?
No. The A12X was what it should have been. And the A12Z is what the A12Z should have been.
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If this was true then the same GPU core wouldn't be disabled in every chip
Who claims the same GPU core is disabled in every chip? Maybe you think that because they are numbered #0, #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6?
 
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Has anybody Perf Tested the Performance Controller (i.e., CPU Scheduler) part of it ???

A10's is Rock Solid !

The Perf Controllers in A11 & A12 are Broken ! <-- can't be pushed as Hard !

A13's almost as good as the A10's !
Interested to know more details about this. I had a 7 (so A10) and now an 11 Pro with the A13. I didn’t have any devices in between so didn’t get to see the performance differences.
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RIP-OFF !! 😷 😷 ( coughing behind the Mask in these days )
Look up “binning”...
 
Such as the cell processor in the PlayStation 3.
I think the Pentium 2 (that's the one before Pentium 3 before Pentium 4 before Core before Core2 before Core2 Duo which was in the 2006 MacBook) came in variants with and without FPU. They were built identically. If the FPU passed testing, it became Pentium 2 with FPU, otherwise it became Pentium 2 without FPU.
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Often we hear "I already bought last year's model... why would I buy this?"

And the answer is... you don't have to. It's not for you.
Someone made a study and found that about 2% of iPhone users buy a new iPhone every year. Two percent. This iPad is for two percent with a one year old iPad, 2% whose iPad was stolen or run over by a truck, and 96% owners of older iPads, owners of Samsung tablets, and people who never owned a tablet.
 
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Folks around here are quite delusional to think the A Series is going to keep churning out major improvements. This dog is on its last legs. The next design will have to try and license technologies from AMD in the area of chiplet designs, and I doubt AMD will do that.

A-Series will have less dramatic improvements as is, and Intel is going to get blitzkrieg'd in September by Zen 3. Apple needs to move to AMD for significant performance improvements to increase Mac sales, period.

Agreed. The people might stop buying any macs or decline in sales to 1.5M from 3,000,000 units if the customer thinks that ZEN 2 is an important consideration in macs.
 
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Gosh, I never could have guessed it based on the "Z" designation!?! 😯
 
Apple has this planned at the beginning of the A12 cpu. A12X for iphone, could be for battery and thermal reasons, and then a planned A12Z release with the remaining gpu core activated for the iPad. Apple is not hiding anything here, and I'm not one to defend Apple behaviour in other areas.
 
Apple has this planned at the beginning of the A12 cpu. A12X for iphone, could be for battery and thermal reasons, and then a planned A12Z release with the remaining gpu core activated for the iPad. Apple is not hiding anything here, and I'm not one to defend Apple behaviour in other areas.

No. A12X won't be used in the iPhone.
 
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It will be interesting to see what upgrades the mini, normal iPad, pros and air get at the end of the year. Will the mini and air get a normal A13, iPad 8 get the A12 and pros get A14x.
Well, it depends on when they get released. mini and Air got the current SoC last March. If they don’t come out until fall, they might get A14. The 7th gen iPad got A10 last fall, so it would seem to be lined up for the A11.

re: iPad Pro, yes A14X (or a new faster SoC?) this fall or winter 2021, since like the A11X, the A13X is nonexistent.
 
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