The upcoming A20 chip’s killer feature could be better battery life

Macworld

While you’re trying to figure out if you’re going to invest in a new iPhone 17 this fall, we always like to remind YOU that something better is always coming soon. The latest report from the future comes from analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities, who provides insight on the A20 chip that will be used in the iPhone 18 next year.

TSMC, Apple’s chip manufacturer, is using an enhanced 3nm process for the A19 chip in this year’s iPhone 17, according to several reports. Reports say this will be the last chip to use the 3nm process, as TSMC will move to 2nm for the A20 in the iPhone 18 Pro and the rumored folding iPhone. According to Pu, TSMC will make the A20 using Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module (WMCM) packaging, where the components of the chip are integrated into the chip at the wafer level. This would allow for, say, the A20’s RAM to be integrated with the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, and other wafer-level components. This is different from the current method of using a silicon interposer to connect the RAM.

With the RAM closer to the CPU and other chip components, this could result in improved power efficiency and a decrease in running temperature, which could provide benefits for battery life. It could also make the physical size of the A20 smaller, which again, would help with power efficiency, and could also benefit the overall design of the iPhone 18–especially the folding iPhone, which will consist of two thin sides that fold into a thicker one.

Pu reports said that the 2nm process involves switching from fin field-effect transistors (FinFET) to gate-all-around field-effect transistors (GAAFET). The switch should allow for an improvement in performance with better power efficiency, but it’s unclear if the effect on power efficiency would be even greater because of the WMCM packaging.

The nanometer process refers to the production of the chip, and 2nm allows for increased transistor density over the previous 3nm and 5nm processes. The higher the transistor density, the better the performance, and the process can also result in better power efficiency. Apple’s first 3nm was the A17 Pro, which debuted in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.