NotEntirelyConfused
Power User
- Joined
- May 15, 2024
- Posts
- 48
In the last few days I've seen rumors that the A18 will come in two versions, the A18 which is the A17 redone on N3E, and the A18Pro which is newer.
This seems absolutely bizarre to me. I can't imagine why Apple would want to spend the time and money (quite a lot, N3E is not a shrink of N3B) redoing the layout of the A17's cores when it's also doing a new core (presumably either using the M4's, or a further improvement on that). The notion that it would spend extra money to build a worse product for segmentation purposes seems nuts. Assuming there is an A18Pro, I would expect them to segment by giving the A18Pro more GPU cores, possibly more E cores, maaaaaybe another P core. (I think they'll give both versions their best NPU - another reason I can't imagine them redoing A17.)
And then there's everything else, the "uncore" - why lay out the A17's on N3E when they're already doing the A18's?
I can, vaguely, imagine them naming the lower-end version of the A18 "A17+" or similar. But I'd bet against it.
Am I missing something here?
This seems absolutely bizarre to me. I can't imagine why Apple would want to spend the time and money (quite a lot, N3E is not a shrink of N3B) redoing the layout of the A17's cores when it's also doing a new core (presumably either using the M4's, or a further improvement on that). The notion that it would spend extra money to build a worse product for segmentation purposes seems nuts. Assuming there is an A18Pro, I would expect them to segment by giving the A18Pro more GPU cores, possibly more E cores, maaaaaybe another P core. (I think they'll give both versions their best NPU - another reason I can't imagine them redoing A17.)
And then there's everything else, the "uncore" - why lay out the A17's on N3E when they're already doing the A18's?
I can, vaguely, imagine them naming the lower-end version of the A18 "A17+" or similar. But I'd bet against it.
Am I missing something here?