iPhone SOCs can do everything 99% of the people want, they are actually more powerful than 99.999% of us want it to be, we don't even use 50% of the processing power, so it makes sense to cut costs.
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Apple Reportedly Planning to Switch Technology Behind A17 Bionic Chip to Cut Costs Next Year
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My XS just got its battery swapped, so it runs great. But I’m also curious into an upgrade this year since next year the iOS support will end.
Why use such sensationalism in the title and develop a biased narrative in the article as if Apple were conspiring in favor of a negative quality? N3E wasn’t ready yet and for the A18 it’ll be; it’s just that.
I'm sure you will get an additional year of security updates with iOS 17, so you could possibly with that new battery push your upgrade out to fall 2025.
You laid that out perfectly clear in your previous post but most people here don’t understand the real reasons and why yield is so important.
It of course also doesn’t help that the article title says “… to cut cost..“ so everyone here jumps on that…
But hey, it’s MR after all…
I'm sure they will also cut the retail prices since they are cutting costs
/s
🤣
Nobody can run a lemonade stand quite like the epic lemon squeezer Tim Cook
/s
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Nobody can run a lemonade stand quite like the epic lemon squeezer Tim Cook
Coming from an iPhone 13 mini, have been torn between upgrading to 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max. Pro Max probably has better longevity becuase of the bigger battery. This chip situation adds another variable. 🤔
Let us hope, dear ones, that there is some juggling happening here that will enable access to RAM/HD stuff beyond on-chip ram. So progress in the SOCs that can make it onto Macs. So progress on the SOCs that will find it's way into Macs?
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In my experience, Apple has a "so so" iPhone upgrade every few years.
5s: Great
6: Problematic
6s: Great
7: OK
8: Great
X: Lots of buz but OK
Xs: Great
11: Great
12: OK
13: Great
14: Why bother
15: should be great
Yes I agree - sounds like the initial chip based on N3B will be exclusive to the 15 Pros, the later iteration which will be cheaper to manufacture will come to a number of lower cost devices the following year and beyond.
Good!
The A17 Bionic chip initially used in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max later this year will fundamentally differ from a version of the same chip set to be manufactured in 2024, a new rumor claims.
The A17 Bionic is expected to be Apple's first chip manufactured with a 3nm fabrication process, resulting in major performance and efficiency improvements over the 5nm technique used for the A14, A15, and A16 chips. The initial version of the A17 Bionic chip will reportedly be manufactured using TSMC's N3B process, but Apple is planning to switch the A17 over to N3E sometime next year. The move is said to be a cost-cutting measure that could come at the expense of reduced efficiency.
N3B is TSMC's original 3nm node created in partnership with Apple. N3E, on the other hand, is the simpler, more accessible node that most other TSMC clients will use. N3E has fewer EUV layers and lower transistor density than N3B, resulting in efficiency tradeoffs, but the process can provide better performance. N3B has also been ready for mass production for some time longer than N3E, but it has much lower yield.
N3B was effectively designed as a trial node and is not compatible with TSMC's successor processes including N3P, N3X, and N3S, meaning that Apple will need to redesign its future chips to take advantage of TSMC's advancements. Apple was originally believed to be planning to use the N3B for the A16 Bionic chip, but had to revert to N4 because it was not ready in time. It may be the case that Apple is using the N3B CPU and GPU core design originally designed for the A16 Bionic for the initial A17 chips, before switching to the original A17 designs with N3E later in 2024. This architecture will presumably be iterated on through TSMC's successor nodes for chips like the "A18" and "A19."
It seems highly unlikely that Apple would make such a drastic change to the A17 Bionic during the product cycle of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, so the N3E version of the chip may instead be destined for next year's standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models. The A15 Bionic chip in the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus is a higher binned variant with one additional GPU core than the A15 used in the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini, so some cross-generational differences despite outwardly featuring the same chip would not be unheard of.
The rumor comes from a Weibo user who claims to be an integrated circuit expert with 25 years of experience working on Intel's Pentium processors. Earlier this year, they were first to claim that the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro's USB-C port and accompanying charging cables will feature a Lightning-like authenticator chip, potentially limiting their functionality with Apple-unapproved accessories — a rumor that went on to be corroborated by more established sources.
Article Link: Apple Reportedly Planning to Switch Technology Behind A17 Bionic Chip to Cut Costs Next Year
You SEE Apple what happens when you tier off last years chip in lower models ?! Now you took the black eye and learning the punches NOT to pull any more and to weave and bob and keep off the ropes!!
Way to go Srouji our device tech pimp!
I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple consolidated all silicon into the M-Series:
Mac M2
iPad M2
Vision Pro M2
iPhone ___
Apple derives savings from volume in well established production lines. An M2 chip in the iPhone Pro next year and then kept the following year in the standard iPhone while the Pro moves to M3, maintaining this lagging cadence going forward, would get all of Apple’s computers on the same chip architecture.
Mac M2
iPad M2
Vision Pro M2
iPhone ___
Apple derives savings from volume in well established production lines. An M2 chip in the iPhone Pro next year and then kept the following year in the standard iPhone while the Pro moves to M3, maintaining this lagging cadence going forward, would get all of Apple’s computers on the same chip architecture.
They've been focusing on efficiency for a long time, a touch more performance with a touch less efficiency could probably be countered with a slightly bigger battery and be a net gain for phone buyers with slightly higher performance without losing battery life given how efficient the chips are already. The delta here on efficiency is not likely to be huge, they're both versions of TSMC's 3nm process.
I'd put 14 in "Great" aswell. Pretty sweet stuff - completely new notch/screen design (since years), new 48mp camera system (since years), jump to LPDDR5 (since years). It's probably the best/refined iPhone released. Otherwise 13 offered what major? The only one which comes to my mind was the 120Hz screen.
Premium markets will get N3B phones, the rest of the world will get N3E. Nothing new, the same thing happens with cars. Cars in premium markets have features that don't even exist on other markets even when they are similarly priced.
It does not matter. Apple has an installed base of 2 Billion iPhones. Most people do not care! They just want an iPhone and if it the newest one that is even better! Most people only use about 10% to 20% of the iPhone's features!
14 pro vs 14, 2 different beasts, the regular 14 is just the 13 pro basically, just cheaper, not really much difference
I think he meant the whole serie. But if it's vanilla 14, yeah, it was huge disappointment.
I wonder if the intent is to have two chips within the family in the same generation going forward, like an A17 (iPhone) and an A17 Max (iPhone Pro). That would be an easier model to swallow and would probably result in more people picking an A17 (not Max) model, which is probably the intent here due to limited production capacity.
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that happened as soon as they cut to a single NAND chip in base storage Macs
