Wesley Hilliard
A supply chain report suggests Apple's next generation of processors will have more Neural Engine cores for more efficient operation of AI introduced in iOS 18.
It's no secret that Apple is working on new AI features that are due sometime in 2024. Apple CEO Tim Cook said AI news would come "later this year," which most expect is related to iOS 18.
According to a report from Economic Daily News, Apple's M4 and A18 processors will feature more AI computing cores. This seems to be a reference to the Neural Engine Apple uses for accelerated processing of machine learning or "AI" tasks.
The report, machine-translated from Chinese, references that this would mean increased investment in TSMC operations. Apple's orders for 3nm processors are expected to grow by 50% year-over-year.
Apple already makes chips with the 3nm process. Those include the M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max, and A17 Pro. The M3 Ultra is expected later in 2024.
A more powerful Neural Engine is inevitable, though it's been a bit of a black box so far. Apple usually states that its Neural Engine has increased performance thanks to more cores or processes.
Regardless of what it's called, Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence, it has always been a part of iPhone thanks to features like the on-screen keyboard or Siri. However, expectations for iOS 18 are set much higher than a more advanced autocorrect.
This supply chain report is technically a rumor because it can't be confirmed. It does seem likely that Apple will beef up its Neural Engine for upcoming features that are all but confirmed, so we're rating this as "possible."
Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 during WWDC in June. The iPhone 16 with the A18 processor will follow in September, and eventually, the M4 series will be revealed by the end of 2024 or early 2025.
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10 Comments
Don’t forget the machine learning algorithm that recognises and categorises people’s faces in Photos. It’s been around for a long long time.
More of the same cores or are adding a second set of cores that might do some ML tasks better than the Neutral core?
Observing past NPU trends, it makes all the sense in the world to improve on them still further.
As for a name though, I'd say it's very likely they'll want to give the functionality some moniker for marketing to get running with. No idea what that might be though.
If this is true and Apple is adding more cores to support upcoming “AI” features, and we know the road to a new processor is a long one, then it seems highly likely that Apple has been planning to add these features for a least a couple of years.
This is as expected. M3 was GPU + 3nm. The Neural Engine in M3 is delivering the same performance as found in A16. Apple doubled performance for A17. M4 must happen this year as Apple can't stand still on AI.