The „Apple designed“ takeover of the chips inside our devices continues apace, and we’re all right with that.
Though details were scant, Apple introduced several new chips at its “Awe Dropping” iPhone 17 event on Tuesday. There were new A-series processors as expected: the A19 in the iPhone 17 and A19 Pro in the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro. But Apple also quickly announced a new C1X cellular modem and N1 network processor.
We have limited information about these new chips, but here’s what we know so far.A19 and A19 Pro
The A19 appears only in a single phone, the iPhone 17. Apple says it is made with ”the most advanced 3nm technology,” which probably means TSMC’s latest N3P process. As with the A18, it’s got 6 CPU cores (2 performance, 4 efficiency) and 5 GPU cores.
It’s hard to tell what’s actually improved, and by how much. A new display engine is necessary for ProMotion and always-on display, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen in other Apple chips for years.
The 5-core GPU is “a big step up,” according to Apple, with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, mesh shaders, and MetalFX upscaling. Frankly, it sounds like the GPU cores of the A18 Pro. Apple says the GPU will be 20 percent faster than the A18. The Neural Engine is also “improved,” but other than increased memory bandwidth, Apple doesn’t get into specifics.
Things get a little more interesting with the A19 Pro, which is found in the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max.
The performance cores have better front-end bandwidth and branch prediction, making it “the fastest CPU in any smartphone,” according to Apple.
