Apple A20 leak offers first look at the standard iPhone 18 chip

Apple's standard A20 chip, the scaled-down version of the A20 Pro, has appeared in a leaked solder ball map. Weibo user 白饭炒白米饭 analyzed the map and estimated the layout of each chip. The map shows the A20 Pro and A20 side by side. All figures below are speculation drawn from the map, not confirmed specifications.

The analysis says the A20 is built on TSMC's N2 process, like the A20 Pro. The A20 Pro's bare die measures 98.80 mm², which is small for the performance it delivers. The A20 is estimated at 70 to 80 mm², which is smaller than the A19 at 82.8 mm². A smaller die helps Apple control costs, as N2 wafers are significantly more expensive than previous nodes.

Packaging also differs. The A20 still appears to use traditional package-on-package (PoP) memory, not the WMCM packaging of the A20 Pro. WMCM helps the SoC dissipate heat, which Apple relies on to reach a 4.93 GHz clock speed on the A20 Pro. The A20 is expected to clock considerably lower, so it likely does not need the same packaging.

For the GPU, the author expects another 5-core design with limited clock speeds, as with past standard chips. Previous base A-series chips trailed their Pro siblings by one GPU core, so a two-core deficit would make the gap more pronounced.

The CPU keeps Apple's usual layout of two super cores and four efficiency cores. The author expects 8 MB of shared L2 for the super cores and 4 MB for the efficiency cores, both 50% less than the A20 Pro. SRAM has scaled poorly in recent nodes, so cutting cache is one of the most direct ways to reduce die area. The system-level cache may grow from the A19's 12 MB to 16 MB to serve on-device AI. The dual 16-core Neural Engine would remain the same as the A20 Pro's, with a dedicated 4 MB cache. The memory interface is expected to be upgraded to a 96-bit bus, matching the Pro, which could be driven by the bandwidth demands of Apple Intelligence.

The A20 is expected to power the base iPhone 18 next year.