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| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | September 7, 2022 |
| Marketed by | Apple Inc. |
| Designed by | Apple Inc. |
| Common manufacturer | |
| Product code | APL1W10[1] |
| Performance | |
| Max.CPUclock rate | 2.02 GHz to 3.46 GHz |
| Cache | |
| L1cache | 320 KB per P-core (192 KB instruction + 128 KB data) 224 KB per E-core (128 KB instruction + 96 KB data) |
| L2 cache | 16 MB (performance cores) 4 MB (efficient cores) |
| Last level cache | 24 MB |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Application | Mobile |
| Technology node | 4 nm (N4P) |
| Microarchitecture |
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| Instructions | ARMv8.6-A[2] |
| Physical specifications | |
| Transistors |
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| Cores |
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| Memory (RAM) |
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| GPU | Apple-designed 4- or 5-core GPU @ 1398 MHz |
| Products, models, variants | |
| Variant |
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| History | |
| Predecessor | Apple A15 Bionic |
| Successors | Apple A17 Pro (iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max),Apple A18 (iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus) |
TheApple A16 Bionic is a64-bitARM-basedsystem on a chip (SoC) designed byApple Inc., part of theApple silicon series, and manufactured byTSMC. It is used in theiPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max,15 and 15 Plus andiPad (11th generation).[3]
The Apple A16 Bionic features an Apple-designed 64-bit six-coreCPU implementingARMv8.6-A[2] with two "Everest"[4][5] high-performance cores running at 3.46 GHz,[6] and four "Sawtooth"[4][5] energy-efficient cores running at 2.02 GHz,[7] in a similar design to theA15 processor oniPhone 14. Apple claims the A16 is about 40% faster than the competition,[3] and it also has new efficiency cores, with their big advantage being they use a third of the power of the best efficiency cores of other phones on the market.
The A16 contains 16 billiontransistors, a 6.7% increase from theA15'stransistor count of 15 billion. It includes an improvedneural processing unit (NPU) with 16 cores known as the "Apple Neural Engine", a newimage signal processor (ISP) with improvedcomputational photography capabilities, and a new module for handling screen-related features that Apple calls a "Display Engine".[3]
The A16 has hardware video encoding and decoding support for theHEVC,H.264, andProRes codec.[8]
During the iPhone 14 launch event Apple touted the A16 chip as the first4 nm processor in asmartphone.[3] However, aTechInsights analysis found that the A16 was manufactured byTSMC on their N4P process.[9] "N4P", as it is called, is ade facto5 nmfabrication process[10] that offers enhancements in performance, power and density when compared to previous products in the same5 nm family: N5, N5P and N4.[11][12][13][10]
In September 2024, TSMC started producing A16 chips in theArizona fab using the same N4P process as the main Taiwan plant.[14]
The A16 integrates an Apple-designed five-coreGPU, which is reportedly coupled with 50% more memory bandwidth when compared to the A15's GPU.[3][15] One GPU core is disabled in the iPad (11th generation), resulting in a four-core GPU for this model.
The A16'smemory has been upgraded toLPDDR5 for 50% higher bandwidth and a 7% faster 16-core Neural Engine, capable of 17 trillion operations per second (TOPS). In comparison, the Neural Engine on the A15 was capable of 15.8 TOPS. All variants of the SoC come with 6 GB of memory.[3][6] Unlike previous generations of Apple's A-Series chips, the A16 utilises a vertical version of the A12X/M1 packaging instead of traditional PoP DRAM. This system is based on an epoxy glass substrate with DRAM mounted on one side, A16 SoC on the other side, and presumably via's going through the epoxy glass that connect the two. Due to the removal of PoP wires, the A16's energy consumption per DRAM read/write transaction has been slightly reduced.[16]
The newimage processor (ISP) found on the A16 chip improved itscomputational photography capabilities. It was designed to handle the higher resolutionimage sensor found in the iPhone 14 Pro, being capable of performing up to 4 trillion operations per photo.[3]
The Display Engine is a first on Apple A-series. It enables a better functioning "always on display" feature, and handles other tasks such as the 1 Hzrefresh rate, the higher peakbrightness of the display and improved anti-aliasing techniques that help smooth out rough edges in the rendering of graphics and images on device displays.[3]
New startup and shutdown chimes were added, only being available in accessibility.[17][16]
| Preceded by | Apple A16 Bionic 2022 | Succeeded by |
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