Apple A18
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | September 9, 2024 |
| Designed by | Apple Inc. |
| Common manufacturer | |
| Product code | A18: Tupai A18 Pro: Tahiti |
| Physical specifications | |
| Transistors |
|
| Cores |
|
| Memory (RAM) | |
| GPUs | A18
A18 Pro
|
| Co-processor | NPU: 35 TOPS (16 cores) |
| Cache | |
| L2 cache |
|
| L3 cache | A18: 12 MB A18 Pro: 24 MB |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Application |
|
| Technology node | 3 nm (TSMC N3E) |
| Instruction set | ARMv9.2-A[3] |
| History | |
| Predecessors | Apple A16 Bionic Apple A17 Pro |
| Successor | Apple A19 |
The Apple A18 and Apple A18 Pro are a pair of 64-bit, ARM-based, systems on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. They are used in the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16e and MacBook Neo, built on a second generation 3 nm process (N3E) by TSMC. Announced on September 9, 2024 and February 19, 2025, they are the successors to the Apple A16 Bionic (on standard iPhone models with 5-core GPU) and the Apple A17 Pro (on premium iPhone models with 6-core GPU).
Design
[edit]The Apple A18 and A18 Pro feature an Apple-designed 64-bit ARMv9.2-A six-core CPU with two high-performance cores at 4.04 GHz and four energy-efficient cores at 2.42 GHz, a four to six-core GPU, and a NPU with 16 cores. Both are produced on TSMC N3E (3 nm FinFET) and measure 90 mm2 and 105 mm2 respectively.[citation needed]
CPU
[edit]Apple claims the A18 chip is up to 30% faster in CPU performance compared to iPhone 15 with the A16 Bionic chip and 50% compared to the iPhone 14 with the A15 Bionic chip. Also, it can deliver the same CPU performance of the A16 Bionic chip while consuming 30% less power.[4][5]
The A18 Pro is up to 15% faster in CPU performance than the A17 Pro chip and can deliver the same CPU performance of A17 Pro chip while consuming 20% less power. Apple claims that the A18 Pro chip has larger caches than the A18.
GPU
[edit]The A18 chip integrates a new Apple-designed four- or five-core GPU, now adding hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading support to the non-Pro lineup. Apple claims that the new A18 chip is up to 40% faster in GPU performance compared to iPhone 15 with the A16 Bionic chip and can deliver the same GPU performance of the A16 Bionic chip while consuming 35% less power.[5]
The A18 Pro features an additional GPU core, bringing its total to six cores, and delivers 20% faster performance than the A17 Pro GPU. Apple claims that it offers two times faster hardware ray tracing, though it is unclear whether this is exclusive to the A18 Pro or available on the non-Pro variant as well.[5]
Additional aspects
[edit]The A18 Pro distinguishes itself from the non-Pro variant with advanced media features, including improved display engines, faster USB controllers, and upgraded video and image signal processors. Apple claims that the new video encoder processes two times more data than the A17 Pro chip.[5]
The A18 has a USB 2.0 controller capable of only 480 Mbit/s through the USB-C port. The A18 Pro has a USB 3.2 Gen 2 controller capable of 10 Gbit/s.
Neural Processing Unit (NPU)
[edit]Apple states that the A18's 16-core Neural Engine is capable of 35 trillion operations per second (35 TOPS) and delivers up to twice the machine learning performance of the Neural Engine in the A16 Bionic.[5][4] The same Neural Engine was used in the Apple A17 Pro, although Apple states that the A18 Pro performs Apple Intelligence tasks up to 15% faster, attributing the improvement to other architectural enhancements, including increased memory bandwidth.[5][2] The A18's Neural Engine rated throughput is approximately 58 times that of the A11 Bionic, Apple's first chip with a Neural Engine, which was capable of 600 billion operations per second.[6]
| Chip | Power (TOPS) |
Year | Power relative to the A18 |
|---|---|---|---|
| A11 Bionic | 0.6 | 2017 | 1.71% |
| A12 Bionic | 5.0 | 2018 | 14.29% |
| A13 Bionic | 6.0 | 2019 | 17.14% |
| A14 Bionic | 11.0 | 2020 | 31.43% |
| A15 Bionic | 15.8 | 2021 | 45.14% |
| A16 Bionic | 17.0 | 2022 | 48.57% |
| A17 Pro | 35.0 | 2023 | N/a |
| A18 | 2024 |
Products that include the A18 series
[edit]A18 with 4-core GPU
[edit]A18 with 5-core GPU
[edit]A18 Pro with 5-core GPU
[edit]A18 Pro with 6-core GPU
[edit]See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Rossignol, Joe (September 9, 2024). "All iPhone 16 Models Equipped With 8GB of RAM for Apple Intelligence". MacRumors. Retrieved August 4, 2026.
- 1 2 Petrov, Daniel (September 12, 2024). "iPhone 16 is the fastest cheap iPhone ever thanks to AI". PhoneArena. Retrieved September 14, 2024.
- ↑ Acton, Michael (September 7, 2024). "Apple's new iPhone will use Arm's next-generation chip technology for AI". Financial Times. Archived from the original on March 4, 2026. Retrieved August 4, 2026.
- 1 2 Mayo, Benjamin (September 9, 2024). "iPhone 16 is powered by A18 chip, up to 30% faster than iPhone 15". 9to5Mac. Retrieved September 9, 2024.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Apple (September 9, 2024). Apple Event – September 9. Retrieved September 14, 2024 – via YouTube.
- ↑ Banerjee, Debrath. "A Microarchitectural Study on Apple's A11 Bionic Processor". ResearchGate. Retrieved September 15, 2024.