GoKawiilA Chinese leaker with some track record has posted images of claimed circuit diagrams of the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models.
These suggest that the new A20 Pro chip may have seven GPU cores – one more than its predecessor – and a faster memory interface …
The images posted by Weibo user Fried White Rice are not of the A20 Pro chip itself, but rather diagrams of where the chip will be attached to the underlying circuit board. From this, they’re making inferences about the power and architecture of the new chip, drawing two main conclusions about likely improvements.
First, the diagrams point to six CPU cores in the same configuration as last year’s model: two high-performance ones and four efficiency cores. However, it appears that the cache memory for the efficiency cores has been increased.
We can see that the L2 cache for the small CPU cores has been increased—likely from 6 MB in the A19 Pro to 8 MB—while the L2 cache for the big CPU cores remains unchanged at 16 MB.
Trying to determine the number of GPU cores from the limited information provided by the solder diagrams is tricky, with six, seven and eight cores all possibilities. However, they conclude that seven cores is the most likely.
Again relying on the overall outline and solder‑ball positions, we can roughly deduce the GPU’s layout and explore several dozen configurations across three core counts—6, 7, and 8 cores. Ultimately, the 7‑core GPU configuration emerges as the most plausible arrangement.
Fixed Focus Digital recently suggested that the A20 Pro chip will be 18% faster than its predecessor with 30% better power efficiency.
9to5Mac’s Take
The Weibo account does have a certain amount of credibility, but this kind of indirect inference is very much a dark art. While the conclusions drawn are indeed plausible, they shouldn’t be viewed as anything more than informed guesses.
... continue reading