M4 and A18 Apple Silicon rumored to get more powerful Neural Engines for iOS 18 AI feature...

AppleInsider

A supply chain report suggests Apple's next generation of processors will have more Neural Engine cores for more efficient operation of AI introduced in iOS 18.

iPhone 15 Pro Max has the A17 Pro

It's no secret that Apple is working on new AI features that are due sometime in 2024. Apple CEO Tim Cook said AI news would come "later this year," which most expect is related to iOS 18.

According to a report from Economic Daily News, Apple's M4 and A18 processors will feature more AI computing cores. This seems to be a reference to the Neural Engine Apple uses for accelerated processing of machine learning or "AI" tasks.

The report, machine-translated from Chinese, references that this would mean increased investment in TSMC operations. Apple's orders for 3nm processors are expected to grow by 50% year-over-year.

Apple already makes chips with the 3nm process. Those include the M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max, and A17 Pro. The M3 Ultra is expected later in 2024.

A more powerful Neural Engine is inevitable, though it's been a bit of a black box so far. Apple usually states that its Neural Engine has increased performance thanks to more cores or processes.

Regardless of what it's called, Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence, it has always been a part of iPhone thanks to features like the on-screen keyboard or Siri. However, expectations for iOS 18 are set much higher than a more advanced autocorrect.

This supply chain report is technically a rumor because it can't be confirmed. It does seem likely that Apple will beef up its Neural Engine for upcoming features that are all but confirmed, so we're rating this as "possible."

Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 during WWDC in June. The iPhone 16 with the A18 processor will follow in September, and eventually, the M4 series will be revealed by the end of 2024 or early 2025.

Rumor Score: Possible

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iOSDevSWE

Don’t forget the machine learning algorithm that recognises and categorises people’s faces in Photos. It’s been around for a long long time. 

mattinoz

More of the same cores or are adding a second set of cores that might do some ML tasks better than the Neutral core?

avon b7

Observing past NPU trends, it makes all the sense in the world to improve on them still further.

As for a name though, I'd say it's very likely they'll want to give the functionality some moniker for marketing to get running with. No idea what that might be though. 

ihatescreennames

If this is true and Apple is adding more cores to support upcoming “AI” features, and we know the road to a new processor is a long one, then it seems highly likely that Apple has been planning to add these features for a least a couple of years. 

That is counter to all the recent “Apple is rushing to catch up on AI!” reports/comments and sounds like Apple’s standard way of doing things. That is, making deliberate, planned steps toward their goal and not rushing out a me-too product. 

Unless there are people who naively think that Apple is throwing more cores into their processors at the last minute just to support these rushed features. I mean, I’m sure those people exist and I’m also sure they are off base if they believe that. 

nubus

This is as expected. M3 was GPU + 3nm. The Neural Engine in M3 is delivering the same performance as found in A16. Apple doubled performance for A17. M4 must happen this year as Apple can't stand still on AI.

dk49

I just hope all AI features run on my newly purchased 15 Pro Max. 

avon b7

dk49 said:

I just hope all AI features run on my newly purchased 15 Pro Max. 

And on that note, I wonder if they will try to convert some of them into extra revenue streams. 

The satellite functionality is supposed to require a subscription at some point and Samsung has said some of its new AI functionality will also require a subscription at some point.

Amazon is doing something similar with Alexa I believe (or some device it runs on). 

It makes you think. 

Stabitha_Christie

ihatescreennames said:

If this is true and Apple is adding more cores to support upcoming “AI” features, and we know the road to a new processor is a long one, then it seems highly likely that Apple has been planning to add these features for a least a couple of years. 

That is counter to all the recent “Apple is rushing to catch up on AI!” reports/comments and sounds like Apple’s standard way of doing things. That is, making deliberate, planned steps toward their goal and not rushing out a me-too product. 

Unless there are people who naively think that Apple is throwing more cores into their processors at the last minute just to support these rushed features. I mean, I’m sure those people exist and I’m also sure they are off base if they believe that. 

That crowd remind me of the people that insisted that Apple absolutely had to make a netbook or they would be finished. 

danox

nubus said:

This is as expected. M3 was GPU + 3nm. The Neural Engine in M3 is delivering the same performance as found in A16. Apple doubled performance for A17. M4 must happen this year as Apple can't stand still on AI.

M4 is coming in 2025 not this year.....

MacPro

I suspect this is the iPhone where Apple's first edge LLM and LAM will hit the road running.