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Today, Apple held a press conference and officially launched a variety of products including the iPhone 15 series and Apple Watch Series 9/Ultra 2, with prices ranging from 1,999 yuan to 13,999 yuan. The biggest highlight of the iPhone 15 Pro/15 Pro Max is also the chip. The A17 Pro chip it is equipped with is also the industry’s first 3 nm chip. It integrates 19 billion transistors, with only 12 silicon atom-wide gaps between transistors. The performance of the built-in six-core CPU is twice that of the A16 Bionic, and the efficiency is up to four times.
For comparison, the A15 has 15 billion transistors, the A14 has 11.8 billion transistors, and the A13 has 8.5 billion transistors.
A17 Pro’s built-in 16-core neural engine runs 2 times faster than the previous generation, can process up to 35 trillion operations per second, and can implement machine learning on the device. The extra speed allows more machine learning to be processed on iPhone, keeping your personal data out of the cloud. It enables more accurate auto-correction, blurring the background in portrait photos, creating personal voices for people with aphasia, and more. For gamers, it helps power new MetalFX technology, which can increase graphic detail in video games without draining battery power as much as increasing resolution.
The A17 Pro also has a dedicated engine designed for iPhone 15 Pro features such as the ProRes video format. It adds support for the newer AV1 video format, which should improve the efficiency of video sites like YouTube that use the format. In addition, it is also equipped with the engine of iPhone ProMotion and always-on display.
The A17 Pro’s built-in six-core GPU uses Apple’s specially designed shader architecture, which is claimed to be the largest redesign in Apple’s GPU history. It focuses on performance and efficiency, supporting the running of complex application software and new rendering functions. Thanks to the new design, Apple’s GPU is 20% faster and more energy-efficient, allowing for sustained performance during gaming. And, for the first time, A17 Pro features hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which helps make light and reflections in games more realistic for a more immersive experience.
In addition, A17 Pro also adds a new USB controller that supports USB 3 speed. The transmission speed using USB 3 data cable can reach up to 10Gbps, which is 20 times that of USB 2.
It is worth mentioning that Apple specifically emphasized that the A17 Pro supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing technology, which is 4 times faster than software-driven ray tracing technology and can present smoother graphics effects and better augmented reality applications and gaming experiences. In the future, console games such as “Resident Evil: Village”, “Resident Evil 4”, “Death Stranding” and “Assassin’s Creed: Visions” will officially be launched on iPhone 15 Pro/15 Pro Max.
At the same time, Apple also launched a new product S9 SiP for smart watches.
Apple says the S9 SiP is the company’s “most powerful watch chip yet.” It contains up to 5.6 billion transistors and a new quad-core neural engine, as well as second-generation ultra-wideband positioning chips. This will enable new advanced features, including on-device Siri processing (which can be used to access data in the Health app) and more precise location tracking. The neural engine will improve dictation accuracy by “up to 25%.”
Allows you to use the built-in version of Siri while offline. The on-device version of Siri is also more secure and features enhanced voice command capabilities, as well as new health features that take advantage of S9 SiP extensions.
Apple’s new chips bring more than just raw specs. The chip’s upgraded Neural Engine powers the watch’s exciting new “Double Tap” feature, which lets you answer and end calls with your thumb tapping your index finger, navigate the watch’s “Smart Stack,” and control things like timers and music . The new chip uses gyroscope technology, other sensors and machine learning algorithms to make it work.
Apple Watch
The first is the Apple Watch Series 9. The maximum screen brightness can reach 2,000 nits and the minimum brightness is only 1 nit. It also has a built-in second-generation ultra-wideband chip and a battery life of 18 hours.
Apple Watch Series 9 supports a new interaction method – two-finger mutual tapping, which relies on accelerometers, gyroscopes and other sensors. By tapping the index finger and thumb together to answer calls, end calls, pause alarms, play or pause Music and other operations can also be controlled by buttons in the application.
In terms of color matching, the aluminum alloy version of Apple Watch Series 9 is available in pink, starlight, silver, midnight, and red, while the stainless steel version is available in gold, silver, and graphite.
Its biggest highlight is the new S9 SiP chip. Apple said that this Apple’s most powerful watch chip to date integrates 5.6 billion transistors, 60% more transistors than Series 8, runs 30% faster, and is equipped with a new 4 The core neural network engine can process machine learning tasks up to twice as fast.
Apple Watch Ultra 2 is also equipped with an S9 SiP chip, has a display brightness of up to 3,000 nits, supports two-finger mutual point interaction, and has the same battery life as the previous generation, with 36 hours in standard mode and 72 hours in low-power mode.
iPhone 15/15 Plus
iPhone 15/15 Plus overall continues last year’s hardware. In terms of processor, iPhone 15/15 Plus is equipped with the same A16 Bionic processor as iPhone 14 Pro, equipped with 2 high-performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, with a built-in second generation of ultra-wideband chips.
In terms of screen, iPhone 15/15 Plus is equipped with an OLED Super Retina display, which introduces Smart Island in the standard version for the first time. The outdoor peak brightness is 2000 nits, twice that of iPhone 14, and supports Dolby Vision of 1600 nits.
In terms of imaging, iPhone 15/15 Plus is equipped with a 48-megapixel main camera, which supports 100% focus pixels and an f1.6 aperture. You can obtain twice the lossless zoom by cropping the main camera, while the 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera remains unchanged. Supports shooting 4K video.
In terms of color matching, iPhone 15/15 Plus is available in five colors: pink, yellow, green, blue, and black. The back cover uses a matte glass process similar to the Pro version.
iPhone 15 Pro/15 Pro Max
There are many highlights in the hardware upgrade of iPhone 15 Pro/15 Pro Max. The first is the introduction of titanium alloy material on the frame for the first time. It is made of grade 5 titanium, which is the same as the material on the Mars rover. It has been precision processed, polished and brushed. Light and sandblasting are combined to create four colors, namely black titanium, white titanium, blue titanium, and natural titanium.
In addition, Apple has canceled the traditional mute button for the first time in the iPhone 15 Pro/15 Pro Max and replaced it with an “operation button”. The mute function is still by default and can also implement Do Not Disturb mode, photo shutter, shortcut commands, and translation. , amplifier, recording start key and other functions.
In terms of screen, it still maintains the Smart Island design and the Super Retina XDR display with all-weather display function and supports ProMotion technology, but the borders are further narrowed, making it the iPhone with the narrowest borders currently.
In terms of imaging, the iPhone 15 Pro’s three-camera solution remains the same as the previous generation. The main camera is 48 million pixels, with a larger sensor and a new coating that can reduce lens glare. It outputs 24 million pixel pictures by default and has a 3x telephoto lens upgrade. It has reached 12 million pixels, and the same 12 million ultra-wide-angle camera as the previous generation.
iPhone 15 Pro Max goes one step further, providing a 5x zoom ultra-telephoto camera with a focal length of 120 mm. The first use of a quadruple reflective prism design combines anti-shake including optical image anti-shake technology and autofocus 3D sensor displacement module. system.
It should be noted that iPhone 15 Pro/15 Pro Max are equipped with Apple’s second-generation ultra-wideband chip, which allows other devices equipped with this chip to connect from up to 3 times the distance, and also supports directional positioning of friends who share their location with you. .
Summarize
At this conference, new products including Apple Watch and iPhone maintained the usual hardware upgrades. The biggest highlight, in addition to the iPhone’s first use of USB-C interface, was the S9 SiP and A17 Pro chips. Apple’s The press conference spent a lot of time explaining the performance improvements of these two chips, especially the latter.
The biggest contributor to the performance leap of the first 3nm chip A17 Pro has long been revealed. It is the familiar TSMC. Its wafer technology is unique in the world, one step ahead of Samsung and Intel, and it was the first to achieve mass production of 3nm chips.
It has been previously reported that Apple has booked all of TSMC’s 3nm process technology this year to manufacture the A17 Pro chip for the iPhone 15 Pro series and the M3 chip that will be equipped with the new 13-inch MacBook Pro. TSMC’s 3nm is N3B, an upgraded version of N3 technology, is scheduled to be mass-produced in the fourth quarter of this year, and there is a chance that it will be launched by Apple.
The golden combination of TSMC + Apple has once again demonstrated its power. I wonder which manufacturer can seize the next wave of 3nm production capacity?
Source: Semiconductor Industry Observation
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