In 2021, Apple’s chip development team hit a serious setback in the development of the A16 Bionic chip’s graphics processor (GPU) that powers the iPhone 14 Pro and flagship iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Apple planned a generational leap for the graphics processor in the latest version of its high-end smartphones, the iPhone 14 Pro. But engineers were too ambitious with adding new features, and early prototypes drew more power than what the company had expected based on software simulations. That could have hurt battery life and made the device too hot, according to two people with direct knowledge of the incident. Because Apple discovered the mistake late in development, it had to base the graphics processor in its iPhone 14 Pro line—which powers the phone’s user interface, games and everything else visible on its screen—largely on the design of the chip that went into last year’s iPhone model, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Those people described the snafu, which hasn’t been previously reported, as unprecedented in the group’s history. The iPhone 14 Pro models, which went on sale in September, showed only small gains in graphics performance compared to the leaps prior generations of iPhones had made over their predecessors, according to testing by independent chip-benchmarking firms.
MacDailyNews Take: Turnover.
Turnover can be one of the most expensive problems at a company. — Shawn Achor
• Key Apple engineer who led development of A7 through A12X chip cores has left the company – March 30, 2019
• Microsoft hires key Apple engineer to design server chips – January 12, 2022
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Shop The Apple Store at Amazon.
I guess that explains why my 14 Pro Max has such incredible battery life. Despite intensive usage, the battery still lasts 2-3 days. What a joy after years of plugging previous iPhones in throughout the day to keep it viable.
Is Apple getting a taste of the difficulties that Intel faces?
Expect more.