Alleged Apple Chip Plans Suggest 'A16' Will Stick With 5nm, 'M2' to Make Jump to 3nm Instead

The A16 chip for the iPhone will reportedly be manufactured with the same process as the A15 chip, with Apple saving a bigger performance leap for the M2 chip. The company is working on a chip variant that uses more powerful cores from the A15, according to the leaker known asShrimpApplePro.

ShrimpApplePro shared information from a reliable source that claims to reveal Apple's chip plans for the upcoming A16 and M2 chips, as well as the final variant in the chip.

The A16 will be similar to the A14, A15, and M1 chips. There have been conflicting reports about whether the A16 will be made with the more advanced 4nm process or the N4 process. ShrimpApplePro said that the A16 will use the N5P process. The A16 may be less of a substantial upgrade than previously thought.

Minor enhancements to the processor, graphics card, and memory are what will make the A16 better. ShrimpApplePro said that the A16 will feature a specific type of memory. The A15 chip in the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro makes the memory more power efficient and faster than the 4X memory.

The M2 chip will be the first Apple chip to use TSMC's 3nm process. The M2 is believed to be Apple's first custom processor.

Apple is said to be working on the final part of the M1 series. The M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra chips use the same core design as the A14 Bionic chip. The final M1 variant will be based on the A15 Bionic and feature high- performance cores.

This final chip in the M1 family could be offered in the next-generation Mac Pro, which Apple explicitly teased earlier this year. The M1 Ultra is Apple's most powerful chip and it is double the power of the M1 Max. The M1 Ultra is said to be more powerful than the first Apple Mac Pro chip. The M1 Ultra in the Mac Studio is already faster than the 28W Intel Xeon chip, so the Mac Pro will need to boast an even more extreme advance in performance.

If it is not for the Mac Pro, this new chip could be a variant of the standard M1 chip. It is possible that ShrimpApplePro's rumor relates to the entry-level M1 variant rather than the top-tier M1 variant in the Apple Silicon Mac Pro. Apple could buy time before releasing Macs with the M2 chip if it offered devices with an iteration of the standard M1 chip.

The A16 chip will only be available in the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max, with the A15 chip remaining in the iPhone 13 and the A15 Bionic, according to other reports.

ShrimpApplePro was unsure about the final naming of the A16 and M2 chips and said that the rumor should be taken with a pinch of salt.