The Cupertian giant is currently working on two SoCs, the A16, which will be the brain of the iPhone 14, and the M2, which will be used in the new generation MacBook Air. Both will use the ARM architecture, however will be manufactured in different nodes and are expected to offer a very uneven level of performance.

A relatively reliable source assures Apple maintains 5nm node with A16 SoCand it just jumps into the process 3nm from TSMC with M2 SoC. This information makes a lot of sense because the 3nm node is ultimately the most advanced node that currently exists and is therefore one of the most limited and expensive. By that I mean that it is likely that Apple was unable to provide all the necessary supplies to produce a sufficient number of A16 and M2 chips under that node, and therefore could have chosen to use a 5nm node in the A16 SoC.

The information also refers to the latest variant of the M1 chip which will theoretically “improved” kernels, that is, based on a more current architecture. To understand this, keep in mind that the Apple M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra SoC use high-performance “Firestorm” cores and high-performance “Icestorm” cores, which are the same architectures as present in SoC A14.

Well, the latest version of the Apple M1 SoC, which theoretically has yet to come, would have the same cores as the current model, but would use blizzard architecture in highly efficient cores and avalanche architecture on high-performance cores, the same architectures used in Apple A15 SoC. If this is confirmed, we can expect a slight improvement in IPC, and thus higher single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. We don’t know which teams will use this new version of the Apple M1, but it is said that this could lead to the next generation of MacBook Pro laptops.

The Apple M2 will be the first in 3nm and could use the ARMv9 architecture

In addition to a leap in the manufacturing process, which should allow for significant improvements in performance and efficiency, the new Apple M2 SoC could become the first apple company to have its own ARMv9 kernels. If this is confirmed, the jump in the level of performance could be much larger than we imagined, although we must take this information with caution because it has not been confirmed.

The maximum number of cores that the Apple M2 will have has not been announced, but it has been rumored that it will be equipped 8 high-performance cores and 4 high-performance cores, which would leave us with a total of 12 cores. Keep in mind that we’ve seen a lot of arrivals and departures related to this chip over the last year, so nothing can be taken for granted at this time. Overall, it looks like this chip will be a big leap forward in both raw performance and efficiency.

If we go back to the Apple A16, it would be the exact opposite of the M2, as it is outlined as continuous chip with several innovations and improvements compared to the Apple A15. This means that it wouldn’t offer significant performance changes compared to the current generation, neither in the CPU nor in the GPU, which also makes sense, because it was Apple’s latest A-series chips that didn’t surprise you in terms of brute force, and this trend followed. If we add the possible maintenance of a 5nm node, I think it would be even clearer.