Apple A20 Pro motherboard leak hints at notable memory and packaging upgrades

An earlier leak confirmed the iPhone 18 would get a slight memory upgrade via a minor memory module rearrangement on the A20 SoC. Now, we get a glimpse at the A20 Pro chip powering this year's premium offerings: the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. A package layout leak reveals the next-gen SoC in detail and hints at notable upgrades.

For starters, it will get a much-needed boost in memory bandwidth. Its memory interface is reportedly 96 bits wide, up from 64 bits on previous generations, potentially increasing memory bandwidth by up to 50% before accounting for any gains from faster memory. The leaker says Apple could use LPDDR6 modules on the A20 Pro, but another commenter, who is apparently the original source for the diagram, says Apple will stick with LPDDR5X. Either way, the total amount of memory is tipped to be fixed at 12 GB.

The A20 Pro is also tipped to adopt a new wafer-level multi-chip packaging approach (WMCM). The redesign reportedly places the memory dies alongside the SoC within the same package rather than stacking them vertically, improving heat dissipation while potentially allowing for more flexible memory configurations in the future.

The leaker concludes by stating the A20 Pro will come with a beefier NPU. The die itself also appears to be roughly the same size as the A19 Pro, previously estimated at around 98.6 mm². Of course, the main improvements will likely come from new CPU/GPU cores and increased transistor density thanks to TSMC's N2 node.