Apple A18 (iPhone 16 Entry-Level SoC)
Overview
Apple A18 (codename Tupai) is Apple's SoC for iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16e (4-core GPU entry variant), and MacBook Neo (5-core GPU special variant, launched 2025-02), released 2024-09-09. Built on TSMC 2nd-gen 3nm (N3E) with 15.2 billion transistors, it features a 6-core CPU (2P @ 4.04 GHz + 4E @ 2.42 GHz), 5-core GPU (first hardware ray tracing on non-Pro models), 16-core Neural Engine (35 TOPS), and 8 GB LPDDR5. Compared to the A16 Bionic, CPU performance is up 30%, GPU performance up 40%, and Neural Engine compute 2×. This is Apple's first time bringing hardware ray tracing to non-Pro models and the first time enabling Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16e.
Core Specifications
| Item | Parameter |
|---|
| Architecture | Apple A-Series (iPhone mobile SoC) |
| Process | TSMC 2nd-gen 3nm (N3E) |
| Transistors | 15.2 billion |
| CPU Cores | 6 (2P @ 4.04 GHz + 4E @ 2.42 GHz) |
| L2 Cache | 8 MB (P-cores) + 4 MB (E-cores) |
| L3 SLC | 12 MB |
| GPU Cores | 5 (iPhone 16/Plus, MacBook Neo) / 4 (iPhone 16e) |
| GPU New Features | Hardware ray tracing (first on non-Pro), Mesh Shading, Dynamic Caching |
| Neural Engine | 16-core, 35 TOPS INT8 (2× A16's 17 TOPS) |
| Unified Memory | 8 GB LPDDR5 (17% more memory bandwidth) |
| Memory Bandwidth | ~51.2 GB/s (8 GB @ 6400 MT/s) |
| Media Engine | Hardware H.264/HEVC/ProRes/ProRes RAW/AV1 decode |
| Interface | USB 2.0 (Lightning port limitation; USB 3 limited to $1,099+ models) |
| TDP | ~8 W (iPhone sustained load) |
| Launch Devices | iPhone 16 (5-core GPU), iPhone 16 Plus (5-core GPU), iPhone 16e (4-core GPU, launched 2025-02), MacBook Neo (5-core GPU, launched 2025-02) |
| Launch Date | 2024-09-09 |
| iPhone 16 128GB | $799 |
Comparison with A16 Bionic / A17 Pro / A18 Pro
| Metric | A18 | A16 Bionic | A17 Pro | A18 Pro |
|---|
| Process | 3nm N3E | 4nm N4P | 3nm N3B | 3nm N3E |
| Transistors | 15.2B | 16B | 19B | 20B |
| CPU Cores | 6 (2P+4E) | 6 (2P+4E) | 6 (2P+4E) | 6 (2P+4E) |
| CPU Frequency | 4.04 GHz | 3.46 GHz | 3.78 GHz | 4.04 GHz |
| GPU Cores | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Hardware RT | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (2× A17 Pro) |
| Neural Engine | 35 TOPS | 17 TOPS | 35 TOPS | 35 TOPS |
| Memory | 8 GB | 6 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Memory Bandwidth | +17% vs A16 | Baseline | Baseline | +17% |
| USB | USB 2.0 | Lightning | USB 3 | USB 3 |
| Single-core | +30% vs A16 | Baseline | +10% vs A16 | +15% vs A17 Pro |
| GPU Performance | +40% vs A16 | Baseline | Baseline | +20% vs A17 Pro |
| Model / Task | Quantization | Performance | Notes |
|---|
| Apple Intelligence on-device 3B LLM | Apple built-in | ~20+ tok/s | iPhone 16 end-to-end |
| Siri local enhancements | Apple built-in | Real-time | iOS 18 on-device |
| Image Playground image generation | Apple built-in | < 2s | On-device Diffusion |
| Visual Intelligence object recognition | Apple built-in | Real-time | Camera + LLM |
| Llama 3.1 8B (Q4_K_M) | llama.cpp | ~12 tok/s | Fits in 8GB |
| Stable Diffusion XL (CoreML) | FP16 | ~0.7 it/s | Image generation |
| Whisper Large V3 (CoreML) | FP16 | 2× real-time | Speech transcription |
MacBook Neo Special Variant: On 2025-02-19, Apple unusually placed the A18 5-core GPU inside the MacBook Neo (12-inch entry-level MacBook, positioned below the Apple Silicon MacBook Air), starting at $599. The MacBook Neo is Apple's first notebook powered by an A-series chip, blurring the line between iPhone and MacBook.
Use Cases
- iPhone 16 ($799, 6.1" OLED 60Hz, dual camera, mainstream model)
- iPhone 16 Plus ($899, 6.7" OLED 60Hz, large-screen model)
- iPhone 16e (2025-02, $599, 6.1" OLED 60Hz, 4-core GPU entry variant)
- MacBook Neo (2025-02, starting $599, 12-inch, A18 5-core GPU, Apple Silicon entry-level notebook)
- Apple Intelligence (iOS 18 on-device 3B LLM)
- Mobile gaming (hardware ray tracing first on non-Pro models)
- Developer: Core ML model deployment
| Item | Information |
|---|
| Vendor | Apple Inc. |
| Design | Apple in-house (Cupertino, CA) |
| Fab | TSMC Taiwan (3nm N3E line) |
| Software Stack | iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15 (Sequoia) |
| AI Framework | Core ML, MLX, Create ML, Apple Intelligence |
| Launch Price | iPhone 16 128GB $799 / 256GB $899 / 512GB $1,099 |
| iPhone 16e Price | 128GB $599 / 256GB $699 / 512GB $899 |
| MacBook Neo Price | 12" 256GB $599 / 512GB $799 |
Key Features
- 2nd-gen 3nm (N3E) process, 15.2 billion transistors
- 5-core GPU + hardware ray tracing (first on non-Pro)
- 16-core Neural Engine 35 TOPS (2× A16)
- 8 GB LPDDR5 (1.3× A16's 6 GB)
- 17% memory bandwidth increase (vs A16)
- Full Apple Intelligence support (on-device 3B LLM)
- Wi-Fi 6 (iPhone 16/Plus still Wi-Fi 6, unlike Pro's Wi-Fi 6E/7)
- 5G sub-6 + mmWave, Thread
- 48MP Fusion camera (iPhone 16/Plus)
- 12MP front camera + Action Button + Camera Control Button
- USB 2.0 (Lightning port limitation, 480 Mbps)