Apple’s Bionic Chip – Is It Worth The Hype?

Apple’s Bionic Chip – Is It Worth The Hype?

With Apple’s landmark event around the corner i.e. 10 September, there is one aspect that is creating a lot of roars and that is its Bionic chip. We shall and see things in perspective and see if the Bionic Chip which has been talked about so much is actually worth the hype.

What Is Bionic Chip?

The Bionic Chip that debuted with the iPhone 8 as A11 Bionic chip is an SoC short for system-on-chip. It was this advancement that made later versions much faster and performance rich. The bionic chip brought with itself two high-performance core which made iPhone 8, 8 Plus and 10 almost 25 percent faster and 70 percent more efficient.

Versions Of Bionic Chip At A Glance

Name of the model

Bionic Chip Version (Chipset)

Launch Date

iPhone 7 Plus A10 Fusion (16 nm) Sept 2016
iPhone 8 A11 Bionic (10 nm) Sept 2017
iPhone 8 Plus A11 Bionic (10 nm) Sept 2017
iPhone X A11 Bionic (10 nm) Sept 2017
iPhone XR A12 Bionic (7 nm) Sept 2018
iPhone XS A12 Bionic (7 nm) Sept 2018
iPhone XS Max A12 Bionic (7 nm) Sept 2018
iPhone 11 A13 Bionic (7 nm) Sept 2019

 

Apple’s Bionic Chip – A11, A12, and A13 At A Glance

Apple’s A11 10 nm bionic chip which debuted with the iPhone 8 kicked it up several notches. The A12 Bionic processor on iPhone came in iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max and we saw a dip in size and increase in power and efficiency.

Processor

While the A12 Bionic has six processor cores (four efficiency cores and two performance cores), quite like A11. But, here is the difference, the two cores in A12 are up to 15percent faster and consume 40percent less power. As for efficiency, the A12 is 50percent more power-efficient.  The A12 Bionic has a GPU which is 50 percent faster than its predecessor.

Neural Engine

Neural engine is a part of the bionic chip processor which came with the iPhone X. It was specifically aimed at enhancing the AI software which are good at processing speech and images. In more technical terms, these software are known as neural networks. The neural engine that already impressed in A11 Bionic Chip with a dual-core design.

From a neural engine standpoint, the iPhone has constantly been given its share of muscle. While A11 neural engine could perform 600 billion operations in a single second, for a chipset this was a start of something commendable which other chipsets could only dream of. A12’s neural engine clocked at 5 trillion operations and when some might think that this is probably the highest the bionic chip can reach, wait till you have iPhone 11 whose A13 bionic chip will give you an astonishing 20 trillion operations per second.

A13 Bionic Chip comes from TSMC which is a leader when it comes to chip manufacturing technology. Undoubtedly A13 will certainly be the fastest SoC that has ever been developed for iPhones.

  • When the Bionic Chip ascended from A11 to A12, its size dipped from 10 nm to 7 nm. Now, many might be expecting a further dip in size. This is not the case and we might as well have to wait till 2020.
  • Having said that, TSMC has in no way has stopped on making the chip better. TSMC is all set to give its customers the N7+ process which uses extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography for some chip layers. The chips will become more efficient (10 percent better than previous ones) and will have a better density (approximately 20 percent more).
  • The A13 chip will likely come packed with an Auto-correction feature that’ll put people back who have been cut out of the frame accidentally. The A13 chip powered models shall come with “ultra-wide angle” sensors that have the ability to take images.

How Else Might A13 Bionic Chip Affect Overall Performance

With iPhone 11 being spiced with a better neural engine and better AI capabilities, Apple’s Siri may see an upgrade. For the same reason, Augmented Reality will also see an upgrade – these would work exceptionally well with AR headsets which are soon to hit the markets. As for more wonders, it’s because of this bionic chip that users can expect to have reverse Wireless charging which will enable the users to charge their Apple Watch or AirPods at the back panel of their iPhones.

You Be The Judge

The iPhone 11 is already creating a lot of noise with features like three rear cameras with an ultra-wide lens, better water and shatter resistance, an updated Face ID system,  new colors and several others. However, this iPhone is yet to hit the market for us to judge whether it is this A 13 bionic chip that could make iPhone class apart from many other devices.

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