What to Expect from the A13 Apple Chipset

There has been a lot news coming out about the new models of iPhones and the features that they will have. Touch ID is rumored to return with the 2020 phones, but they will also have a new chipset. The A13 processor will power the next model of Phone, which could enter mass production soon according to sources like Bloomberg News. Since the production of these chipsets takes years, the A13 is likely already finished and ready to hit the market. It will be the fastest chipset Apple has developed, but what else should you expect from it?

Improved 7nm Process

One thing we can expect from the A13 is for Apple to stick with its manufacturing partner TSMC, which has a lead in chip technology. However, they are not ready to make a leap into a new chip process node. Last year it progressed from 10 to 7 nanometers, but the 5nm transition will probably not be ready until the 2020 iPhones are released. For now, the 7nm is what the phones will have.

Still, this doesn't mean there won't be improvements. Currently ramping up its 7nm+ process, TSMC has begun using ultraviolet lithography for some of its chip layers. Not only should this allow for better density, at around 20 percent more logic, it will lead to ten percent more efficient power.

Apple will likely be the first company to use this technology, although it is not clear if the enhanced version of the regular process of the new 7nm+. Apple will still be releasing the best manufacturing technology that is ready, so you can expect it to be better than the 7nm process found in the A12 chipsets.

According to the experts at the site MoneyPug, which is used to compare mobile phones, the A13 will likely be the largest chip Apple has ever been put into a phone. It could be up to 25 percent larger, improving its processes and increasing its density.

Performance of CPU

The A13 will likely have the same transistor count as the A12X, but they probably won't double up the high-powered CPU cores. Instead the company may have two high-performance CPU cores and four energy-efficient ones. There is a chance of increased performance count from 2 to 3, but it isn't likely that they will push it up to 4 just yet.

Relying on architectural tweaks and better peak clock speeds to increase CPU performance, the company's chips will continue to be the fastest on the market. The single-core performance gains have been steady for company in recent years, and if they continue on this path the 4 single-core will likely blow any other chipset out of the water when it does premiere.

These performance rates are tough to predict, the line is skewed by the multi-core performance leaps made from the A10 to the A11 and design changes allowed high and low-power cores to work together. Even if Apple doesn't add new cores, the performance of the A13 will score high.

Graphics

With improvements on Apple's graphics, the ability to render traditional 3D scenes and to use GPU for complex non-graphic computing like image processing. The traditional performance has increased at a steady rate for over the last few generations of A-series processors. It is often limited by memory bandwidth, but it doesn't make large improvements from one year to the next. You can expect significant improvements in the A13. However, they won't likely score as high as the latest Qualcomm chips.

The Neural Engine

The A13 chipset could have 40 percent more transistors than the A12, and Apple will likely go in the direction of on-device machine learning and image processing. The Neural Engine in the A12 was improved more than expected, at eight times faster than the A11. The leap forward with the A13 probably won't be that large, but it could be anywhere from 3 to 5 times faster than the A12.

Since machine leaning and AI are now integral parts of the iPhone, Apple is likely doing its best to increase the speed of operations. While the improvements may not be earth-shattering this time around, every inch forward is exciting. You can count that Apple is already well on their way to making advances we don't even know about yet.