The next flagship models of iPhone and Mac will get more neural processing cores to enable better generative AI features.
This year, Apple will join the AI trend by upgrading the neural engine of the iPhone 16 for generative AI features of iOS 18, as per report.
The current iPhone and Mac models have AI capabilities already, but the tech giant wants to do more. According to a report, the A18 on the iPhone 16 series will have a significantly improved neural engine.
The “significant” improvement is the additional cores to work with generative AI features of iOS 18. This upcoming version of iOS is expected to be more powerful, smarter, and better, but specifics aren’t yet known.
Here’s the idea:
“In terms of generative AI, which, I’d guess, is your focus, we have a lot of work going on internally as I’ve alluded to before. Our MO, if you will, has always been to do work and then talk about work and not to get out in front of ourselves. And so, we’re going to hold that to this as well. But we’ve got some things that we are incredibly excited about that we’ll be talking about later this year,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Apple has only improved the iPhone’s neural engine performance over the years. From iPhone 12 to iPhone 15, the neural processing cores remained at 16 though. The company simply enhanced the speed of the neural engine by twice on A17 of iPhone 15 Pro, compared to the predecessor.
Meanwhile, typical Apple silicon chips for Mac are equipped with a 16-core neural engine. Only the Mac Studio and Mac Pro are powered with a 32-core neural engine if adjusted with an M1 or M2 Ultra chip.
It’s no wonder why Apple wants to level up its AI features this year. ChatGPT has gained a foothold in the market and Bard just turned into Gemini, now a competitive rival of the former.
While the rumored A18 is likely coming out this year, the newer M4 chip is expected in late 2024 or early 2025.
