Apple is setting the stage for its next generation of ‘A’ series processors, and it seems that they are turning a few heads already. Amid this worldwide pandemic, the progress of technology does not seem to slow down. If rumours are to be believed, Apple’s A14X Bionic chip could be almost on par with the 8 core Intel Core i9-9800H processor.
The upcoming processor is said to be featured in the new Apple iPad Pro (or even the ARM MacBooks) which would reportedly come with 5G support. The upcoming next-gen processor is expected to come with massive improvements over its predecessors of the A series with X extensions.
The Previous Gen of Apple iPad Processors
iPad processors have always been one of the key points of development for the Cupertino based tech giant. The latest edition of the iPad processors is the new A12Z Bionic chip, which was unveiled back in March 2020. The chip brought major improvements with it such as faster 4K video editing, augmented reality and many more. It had an 8 core GPU as compared to its predecessor A12X, which had only 7 core GPU. The A12Z Bionic chip uses TSMC 7nm process node and comes with an enhanced thermal design that was focused on improving the performance and providing higher clocking speed.
In terms of performance, it was a major improvement over the A12X Bionic chip. Another factor worth mentioning was its 9% boost in GPU performance as compared to the A12X. It also received the highest benchmarking score on ATuTu given to any benchmark test. Even though the A12Z is a powerful processing chip, it does not support 5G. Apple isn’t expected to sit back and relax. With the new A14X Bionic chip, Apple is expected to introduce a new frontier in terms of improvement for the iPad Pro processors.
The Next Frontier: Apple’s A14X Bionic Processor
Rumours about the upcoming Apple’s A14X Bionic chip processor surfaced on August 17. Youtuber Luke Miami took to twitter to discuss the leaked data regarding the processor. One of the most interesting things about the upcoming processor would be its leap towards next-generation technology. The new A14X processor is expected to be made using TSMC’s 5nm node technology. If it turns out to be true, then this would be the first Apple processor to use the 5nm node technology since all the previous-gen processors used the 7nm (or higher) node technology. This would be a major improvement in terms of processing speed for the processor.
The tweet by Luke provides performance data of the new A14X Bionic processor while comparing it with the average performance gains of the previous-gen of A-series processors with the X tag name. The data presented is the performance comparison of the numbers acquired from GeekBench 5 results. The upcoming processor manages to get a massive score of 7480 while the A12X processor scores around 4500+. Luke mentions that the performance numbers of A14X put it almost on par with Intel’s Core i9 9880H which are used in high-end notebooks and require a lot of cooling. To put this sort of a processor in a slim device like iPad Pro would be more than impressive, provided there are no heating issues.
While all of these details are mere rumours, they suggest that Apple is not pulling any punches when it comes to moving towards the next-generation technology. The rumours even suggest that the A14 Bionic processor could be used in the upcoming iPhone 12 line-up. Nevertheless, these all are just speculation, and it’s hard to say if these results are true or not. However, these leaks have hyped fans who await for the A14 processors to be on the market on their favourite Apple devices.