Apple today introduced its new flagship A14 Bionic processor. The newly announced 5nm SoC powers the iPad Air (2020) and Apple will also use this Chipset in its 5G iPhone 12 series. The new chip has 11.8 billion transistors and a 40% faster central processing unit (CPU). It also has 30% faster graphics and is made with a 5-nanometer manufacturing process.
The 5-nanometer measure refers to the width between circuits on the chip. That width is five billionths of a meter. The top smartphones on the market use 7-nanometer chips today. A smaller width is better because it enables the chips to be smaller and faster. The A14 Bionic also includes Apple's latest four-core GPU which delivers maximum performance while using the lowest possible amount of power. Apple points out that with the A14 Bionic, the new iPad Air has up to two times faster graphics performance compared to the best-selling laptop in the tablet's price range. In addition, the A14 Bionic Chipset has more technology including a neural engine for Machine Learning. The faster neural engine on the chipset has 16 core architecture. That is double the number of neural engine cores found on the A13 Bionic. The 5nm A14 Bionic will also power all 2020 iPhone 12 models (as mentioned above). This will make the upcoming iOS handsets the first iPhones to be powered by a 5nm chipset. The potential savings in energy consumption is believed to be one reason why Apple might feel comfortable cutting the battery capacities on the new iPhones despite having to support 5G connectivity.