Apple A12 Chip With 7nm Architecture Expected to be More Power Efficient

Apple is expected to launch three variants of the iPhone this year. The three iPhones include a successor of the iPhone X that will be a 5.8-inch device with an OLED display, a larger 6.5-inch iPhone X successor with a “Plus” moniker that will also have an OLED display, and a third affordable 6.1-inch iPhone that will sport an LCD display. According to a report by website Cult of Mac, Apple will be adopting the 7nm manufacturing process for the chipset powering the next generation of iPhones. Expected to be called the A12, the chip will boast of the more power efficient and performance boosting 7nm architecture, claims the report. Due to a compact fabrication process (7nm), the upcoming Apple chipset will reportedly be faster and also be more power efficient. TSMC is said to build A12 chip using 7nm manufacturing process instead of the 10nm process that was fabricated on the A11 Bionic chip.

Apple designs its processors, but the A12 is being manufactured exclusively by TSMC. This Taiwanese company’s breakthrough this year is chips with a 7nm process, down from 10nm. Promising increased performance on its website, TSMC says its 7nm process is said to make the A12 chip 20% faster than last year's A11 chip and 40% more energy efficient. The A12 chip's power consumption improvements should come as a welcome addition, given recent reports that the iPhone XI's battery might only be 10% bigger than last year's model.

This contradicts with earlier rumours from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who said that 3D Touch won't be a feature on the rumoured 6.1in iPhone, and could suggest that all three incoming models won't feature the haptic screen tech. The lack of 3D Touch on the cheaper 6.1-inch iPhone has been tipped before. The report adds that the cost of the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone's touch panel will increase 15 percent thanks to the use of a thin-film sensor on top of the touch-film sensor.