Apple’s newest chip, the A13 bionic is capable of handling more than just your casual mundane tasks.
If you’re a lucky owner of one or considering attaining one, we’ll tip you off on the A13 Bionic chip specs, what it does, what it’s capable of, exactly how is it better than its predecessor, and so much more.
Stay tuned if you’re ready to unveil what we’ve spent hours scouring the internet for!
Laying The Foundation
The powerful chip was announced in September of 2019, as a replacement for the A12. This announcement was made alongside Apple’s iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, which are the phones that carry this magnificent chip.
The chip is manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, using their second-generation 7nm NZP, which manages to incorporate 8.5 billion transistors.
Pure Specs
Besides housing 8.5 billion transistors, it is home to eighteen separate cores:
- Six-core CPU
- Four-Core GPU
- Eight-Core Neural Engine Processor
CPU
It’s central processing unit (CPU), four of which is dedicated to day-to-day tasks. Such as calls, application usages, messages, even your occasional facetime. The other two remain reserved for more intense usages, such as gaming, processing photos & videos, as well as any other applications that require more processing power.
GPU
The four-core GPU might not seem like much; however, it’s the main task is to create those crispy and vibrant frames you can view from the comfort of your home. It was recently reported that this GPU is 20% faster, and consumes 30% less than the A12, a comparison later on!
Neural Engine Processor
Devoting eight total cores shows how serious and deep into the future Apple is towards what those cores are capable of doing. The cores allow for faster machine learning, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and so forth.
Essentially, making your phone a developer’s dream, allowing for more complex and faster machine learning technologies. When put into perspective, it is 20% faster and consumes 15% less power than the A12.
Power Consumption
Nevertheless, with such high energy, performance, and pure processing power, all in a small metal box, you’d think this phone won’t last long without a charge.
Thankfully not! If the above-mentioned percentages on the lesser power consumption aren’t enough, on a recent test, it has been found that the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, fairs much better when compared to the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR. This is all thanks to Apple’s exceptional method of carefully saving necessary power, in their newest designs.
Keep in mind, the A13 requires, and takes in much more power than any previous chips by Apple. Hence, making it even more efficient, when put into comparison!
What Can It Do?
Besides giving off unprecedented results, upon further inspection, you’ll be delighted to know what it can do for you. Improved image processing, alongside 4k videos at 60fps & on HDR, great for those aspiring social media creators out there!
Not just that, but you can also expect to see better usage across its cores, allowing for a more streamlined, and faster processing within your daily applications, which is to be expected from Apple.
The A13 Bionic Specification
| CPU Core | Hexa-core CPU |
| GPU | Apple designed 4-core GPU |
| CPU Architecture | 2x 2.65GHz (Lightning ) 4x 1.8GHz (Thunder) |
| Machine Learning and AI | 8-core Neural Engine |
| CPU Clock Speed | Up to 2.65GHz |
| Process Technology | TSMC's 7nm N7P |
| Video Capability | 4K HDR @ 60FPS |
| Charging | Fast Charging |
| WiFi Support | Wi-Fi 6-ready |
| Modem | Intel's XMM 7660 LTE Modem **1.6Gbps Peak Download **225Mbps Peak Upload |
A13 Bionic VS A12 Bionic
As you know the A12 Bionic chip has 2x 2.49 GHz (Vortex) whereas the 4x 1.6 GHz (Tempest) cores are used for energy-efficiency, plus eight neural engine cores, while the A13 has 2x 2.65GHz (Lightning ) 4x 1.8GHz (Thunder), plus eight neural engine cores, making it a big difference!
Moreover, the A12 only has 6.9 billion transistors, while the A13 has 8.5 billion. Even though the A12 achieves much more than the A11, the A13 is still the king for now. Not only does this make the A13’s more efficient, but also more powerful!
What Does The Future Hold? | Apple A14
Currently, no official announcements have been made for the A14 Bionic. However, general speculation has led many to believe that the chip is currently in a testing phase of sorts.
Predictions for the number of transistors on the A14 has been about 10 billion, a massive increase from any of its previous competition! Not much can be said for the CPU; nonetheless, it has been predicted not to be a drastic increase, as it is just not needed and currently already have more than enough cores.
When talking about it’s GPU, we can be expected to see a considerable increase, due to Apple shifting their focus to higher-intensity games that will require nothing but the utmost best of devices to be played on!
Regarding Apple’s neural engine, Apple will be sure to incorporate more power and overall performance at least twice of what we see today. As well as specialized task for image processing, decoding, and augmented reality.
Not much can be said about Apple’s future as of now, but from what we can see, it’s only a matter of time before they announce something mind- blowing!
Concluding Statement
Finally, it all boils down to what its users utilize the A13 for. Apple has gone to tremendous lengths to bring us this perfect piece of a chip that will sadly soon be beaten out as technology research increase & improve over this couple of years.
At least for now, the A13 remains as Apple’s finest, and overall most capable chip that can do more than just daily tasks.
Watch video: A13 bionic chip explained