Apple M4 & A18 Chipsets Linked to Significant Neural Engine Upgrade

[T0@st]

Apple CEO, Tim Cook, discussed planned generative AI software features during an early February earnings call: "As we look ahead, we will continue to invest in these and other technologies that will shape the future. That includes artificial intelligence, where we continue to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort, and we're excited to share the details of our ongoing work in that space later this year." His "prepared" statement did not provide any specific insights into involved technologies, but many iPhone experts believe that the upcoming release of iOS 18 could be "the biggest update" in Apple mobile operating system history. The American multinational technology giant is seemingly taking a relaxed approach with internal artificial intelligence developments—rival smartphone maker, Samsung, has already jumped into the on-the-go AI deep end with its recently launched Galaxy S24 series. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (for Galaxy) chipset is ready to take on all sorts of artificial intelligence-augmented tasks, while a next-gen ARM Cortex-X "Blackhawk" unit (leveraging "great" LLM performance) is in the pipeline for a late 2024 rollout.

Taiwan's Economic Daily News has reached out to insider contacts, albeit on the hardware side of things—their sources reckon that Apple is working on next generation processors that sport "significantly upgraded Neural Engine performance with additional cores." Tipsters believe that plans for 2024 include an effort to "significantly strengthen the AI computing power of the (existing) M3 and A17 processors," while the true "new generation" M4 and Bionic A18 chipsets will be augmented with greater AI computing core counts. Taiwan's top foundry is reportedly in the mix: "Apple has strengthened the AI computing performance of mobile devices and greatly increased the computing power of its own processors, which has simultaneously increased its wafer investment in TSMC. According to industry sources, Apple's wafer production volume for TSMC's 3 nm enhanced version process this year is expected to increase by more than 50% compared with last year, making it firmly the largest customer of TSMC."




Apple's current batch of A and M series processors typically sport 16-core Neural Engine configurations—supply chain insiders have not specified the number of additional cores lined up for late 2024 product refreshes of iPhones (Bionic A18) and Mac devices (M4 SoC). The M1 Ultra and M2 Ultra chipset configurations are outliers in the present day stable—Mac Studio and Mac Pro devices can access a 32-core Neural Engine, courtesy of the Ultra variants. An M3 Ultra processor could debut at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC24), alongside revised M3 and A17 SoCs.

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[BorisDG]

"while the true "new generation" M4 and Bionic A14 chipsets"

It's A18.

 

[bonehead123]

Cores, smores, 18's & 4's....

As long as those big fat dividend checks keep comin, they can call them whatever they want, hehehe

You go fruity bois !

 

[Daven]

I hope this puts to rest any more silly talk of Apple using IFS. While its not out of the realm of possibility, there is no reason for Apple to use IFS other than a brand loyalist fantasy to see Intel ‘winning’.