Apple’s new A16 Bionic chip is history in the making

Apple recently revealed new details about the chip powering the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max: the A16 Bionic.

At an event in Cupertino last week, Apple stated that the successor to the A15 Bionic (which can be located in the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus), packs more transistors — approx. 16 billion, manufactured on a 4 nm process. They also revealed that the components are specially designed to accelerate AI and other tasks across smartphone apps and iOS. 

Apple states that the A16 Bionic has a multicore processor with two high-performance cores and four efficiency cores, a five-core GPU, and a 16-core neural engine for performing up to 17 trillion operations per second. 

Additionally, Apple further claims the high-performance cores use 20% less power compared to the A15 Bionic’s performance cores, while the efficiency cores use a third of the power of unnamed competitor chips. The GPU has up to 50% more memory bandwidth, and overall, Apple says that the A16 Bionic is upward of 40% faster than rival chipsets. That’s insane! 

Another standout feature includes a custom image signal processor that powers the iPhone 14 Pro’s camera system. The processor, GPU, neural engine, and image signal processor in the A16 Bionic work together to support the new camera hardware and perform up to 4 trillion operations per photo. 

There is also a brand new component inside the A16 chip that we haven’t seen on an iPhone chip before: the Display Engine. The new display engine enables 1 Hz refresh rates, high peak brightness, and features like always-on display and antialiasing to even out rough edges in display graphics. 

Apple said the iPhone 14 Pro is the most significant camera upgrade for an iPhone ever, and a big part of that has to do with the new ISP and Photonic Engine.

With the A16 Bionic chip being claimed the fastest and finest ever used in a smartphone, business owners can expect more power efficiency, a better display, and a superior camera.