Apple’s A18 and A18 Pro chips, launched alongside the iPhone 16 series, have now been revealed in detailed die shots, confirming that despite both being built using TSMC’s 3nm process technology, the two chips have distinct designs. The A18 Pro is geared towards handling more intensive graphical tasks such as augmented reality, 3D rendering, and ray tracing.
The die shots show that Apple utilized TSMC’s InFO-PoP (Integrated Fan-Out Package-on-Package) technology, which stacks DRAM packages directly on top of the SoC die, helping to reduce the overall chip size while maintaining strong thermal and electrical performance. This method also involves high-density Redistribution Layers (RDL) and Through InFO Via (TIV) to improve efficiency.
A closer look at the die reveals that the A18 Pro has more transistors than the standard A18, allowing for higher performance in demanding tasks.
There have been reports that Apple plans to reserve TSMC’s 2nm process technology for the A19 chips, but analysts suggest the iPhone 17 Pro series might be the only devices to feature 2nm chips, due to yield issues with the 2nm process.
