When Apple introduced the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, there was a section in which he chose not to dwell too much: the graphic power of the A16 Bionic chip. During the event that took place in September, only the addition of a 5-core GPU that offered 50% higher bandwidth was mentioned, but not much more. And this now seems to have an explanation: those of Cupertino were forced to eliminate the incorporation of a next-generation GPU from their plans due to an engineering error.
So it affirms The Information in its most recent report, which exposes a situation that seems even inappropriate for the apple firm. According to the aforementioned medium, Apple engineers they made a mistake during the design of a new graphics processing unit for the A16 Bionic, but realized their mistake late. This forced the company to discard the plan to integrate a next-generation GPU, which would have been endowed with more advanced features than those finally seen in the iPhone 14 Pro. Among many, support for ray tracing.
Could the ruling have been so serious that Apple made such a drastic decision? Everything indicates yes. The report mentions that the engineering team was “overly ambitious” in adding new features to the GPU of the chip used in the iPhone 14 Pro. This led to the first prototypes of the smartphones being more premium of the apple suffered notorious problems, especially on battery consumption.
The graphics unit of the A16 Bionic required much more power than had been calculated during the simulations. To the point of draining the charge and make it practically impossible to use the mobilebecause autonomy was far from what Apple intended.
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max could arrive with a much more powerful GPU
Thus, those of Cupertino had to settle for equipping the iPhone 14 Pro with a GPU that used an architecture similar to that of the iPhone 13 Pro. Something that is certainly not bad, but that now seems to have been far from what it was. what they wanted from the beginning.
Although it may seem like an isolated event, one of those that occur within any company, doors inside Apple Park would have looked like a calamity. In fact, The Information mentions that the error has been described as something “unprecedented” in the history of the division in charge of creating the chips of the Apple Silicon family.
The aforementioned report mentions this case as part of a much more complex panorama within the company led by Tim Cook. It even indicates that the GPU error of the iPhone 14 Pro would be the first sign that Apple is having problems to sustain the magnitude of generational leapsboth in efficiency and performance, that its hardware has presented in the last two years.
Part of the problem would be related to the loss of talent, something that is affecting Apple more than it would like to admit. In recent times, several key pieces of its chip engineering team have left the company. Some of them have established their own startups, others have joined already established companies. This has led those in Cupertino to sue Nuvia Y rivers, two companies made up of ex-engineers from the block; Going so far as to accuse them of stealing information on the design of their chips.