Apple A18
System-on-a-chip designed by Apple Inc.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Apple A18 and Apple A18 Pro are a pair of 64-bit, ARM-based, systems on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc., part of the Apple silicon series. They are used in the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16e and MacBook Neo, built on a second generation 3 nm process (N3E) by TSMC. Announced on September 9, 2024 and February 19, 2025, they are the successors to the Apple A16 Bionic (on standard iPhone models with 5-core GPU) and the Apple A17 Pro (on premium iPhone models with 6-core GPU).
A18 Pro: Tahiti
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | September 9, 2024 |
| Designed by | Apple Inc. |
| Common manufacturer | |
| Product code | A18: Tupai A18 Pro: Tahiti |
| Physical specifications | |
| Transistors |
|
| Cores |
|
| Memory (RAM) | |
| GPUs | A18
A18 Pro
|
| Co-processor | NPU: 35 TOPS (16 cores) |
| Cache | |
| L2 cache |
|
| L3 cache | A18: 12 MB A18 Pro: 24 MB |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Application |
|
| Technology node | 3 nm (TSMC N3E) |
| Instruction set | ARMv9.2-A[3] |
| History | |
| Predecessors | Apple A16 Bionic Apple A17 Pro |
| Successor | Apple A19 |
Design
The Apple A18 and A18 Pro feature an Apple-designed 64-bit ARMv9.2-A six-core CPU with two high-performance cores at 4.04 GHz and four energy-efficient cores at 2.42 GHz, a four to six-core GPU, and a NPU with 16 cores. Both are produced on TSMC N3E (3 nm FinFET) and measure 90 mm2 and 105 mm2 respectively.[4]
CPU
Apple claims the A18 chip is up to 30% faster in CPU performance compared to iPhone 15 with the A16 Bionic chip and 50% compared to the iPhone 14 with the A15 Bionic chip. Also, it can deliver the same CPU performance of the A16 Bionic chip while consuming 30% less power.[5][6]
The A18 Pro is up to 15% faster in CPU performance than the A17 Pro chip and can deliver the same CPU performance of A17 Pro chip while consuming 20% less power. Apple claims that the A18 Pro chip has larger caches than the A18.
GPU
The A18 chip integrates a new Apple-designed four- or five-core GPU, now adding hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading support to the non-Pro lineup. Apple claims that the new A18 chip is up to 40% faster in GPU performance compared to iPhone 15 with the A16 Bionic chip and can deliver the same GPU performance of the A16 Bionic chip while consuming 35% less power.[6]
The A18 Pro features an additional GPU core, bringing its total to six cores, and delivers 20% faster performance than the A17 Pro GPU. Apple claims that it offers 2 times faster hardware ray tracing, though it is unclear whether this is exclusive to the A18 Pro or available on the non-Pro variant as well.[6]
Additional aspects
The A18 Pro distinguishes itself from the non-Pro variant with advanced media features, including improved display engines, faster USB controllers, and upgraded video and image signal processors. Apple claims that the new video encoder processes 2 times more data than the A17 Pro chip.[6] The A18 has a legacy USB 2.0 controller capable of only 480 Mbit/s through the USB-C port. The A18 Pro has a USB 3.2 Gen 2 controller capable of 10 Gbit/s.
Neural Processing Unit (NPU)
Apple states that the A18's 16-core Neural Engine is capable of 35 trillion operations per second (35 TOPS) and delivers up to twice the machine learning performance of the Neural Engine in the A16 Bionic.[6][5] The same Neural Engine was used in the Apple A17 Pro, although Apple states that the A18 Pro performs Apple Intelligence tasks up to 15% faster, attributing the improvement to other architectural enhancements, including increased memory bandwidth.[6][7] The A18's Neural Engine rated throughput is approximately 58 times that of the A11 Bionic, Apple's first chip with a Neural Engine, which was capable of 600 billion operations per second.[8]
| Chip | Power (TOPS) |
Year | Power relative to the A18 |
|---|---|---|---|
| A11 Bionic | 0.6 | 2017 | 1.71% |
| A12 Bionic | 5.0 | 2018 | 14.29% |
| A13 Bionic | 6.0 | 2019 | 17.14% |
| A14 Bionic | 11.0 | 2020 | 31.43% |
| A15 Bionic | 15.8 | 2021 | 45.14% |
| A16 Bionic | 17.0 | 2022 | 48.57% |
| A17 Pro | 35.0 | 2023 | N/a |
| A18 | 2024 |