Apple A16 chip exposed to false propaganda is actually 5nm.

Pacific science and technology informationOn August 22nd, Apple’s marketing team did an excellent job in promoting the advantages of its products and chips, even if it meant misleading consumers into believing that they were actually investing in cutting-edge products. Previously, the market generally thought that the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max were equipped with A16 bionic chips manufactured by TSMC in a 4-nanometer process. However, a person familiar with the matter overturned this view. He revealed that Apple internally marked this chip as a 5-nanometer chip, instead of the expected 4 nanometers.

The whistleblower further confirmed that A16 bionic chip was labeled as a 5-nanometer chip inside Apple. This may explain why Apple mentioned in the press release that the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips in the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are mass-produced on the 5-nanometer process instead of the 4-nanometer process.

On the other hand, Apple’s next-generation A17 bionic chip is determined to adopt TSMC’s most advanced 3 nm process. Due to the transition from 5 nm to 3 nm, the performance leap between A16 and A17 will be huge. It is reported that in the previous benchmark test, compared with the previous generation, A17 bionic chip has improved as much as 31% in single-core and multi-core results.

It is worth noting that this latest news makes the upcoming iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max more attractive, because both phones will be equipped with A17 bionic chips. However, the relatively low-priced iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus may use A16 bionic chip.

However, this has also triggered netizens’ speculation, whether A17 is just another product promoted by Apple’s comprehensive marketing promotion, or whether the customized chip is actually designed and mass-produced on a brand-new architecture. Some netizens claimed that TSMC’s 3-nanometer process may only reduce the 5-nanometer nodes, and the real 3-nanometer process should adopt N3E technology. So far, we are disappointed that A16 is not a 4nm component, but this is not surprising, because the company always follows this practice.