The iPad Air (4th generation) has been announced with the new and improved Apple A14 Bionic processor, even before the SoC could make its debut in the next generation iPhone lineup. This is a rare occurrence as Apple usually introduces a new chip with a new generation of iPhone and then adds it to the iPad lineup. Apple calls the A14 Bionic “the most powerful chip ever made.” The last time Apple introduced a new chip to the iPad before the iPhone was with the launch of the iPad 2 in March 2011.
Apple A14 bionic chip
The A14 Bionic processor, as described by Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, provides a massive boost in performance that helps deliver powerful professional features at a more affordable price. This six-core processor found in the iPad Air (4th generation) brings a 40 percent increase in CPU performance and a 30 percent improvement in graphics, compared to the previous generation.
Typically, Apple’s new processors make their debut with the new iPhone models and then make their way to the iPad models. This year, however, the iPad Air (fourth generation) has become the first device to come with the new chip and is expected to be followed by the next iPhone 12 models, which have no release date yet.
As mentioned, this is not the first time Apple has done this. 9 years ago, the iPad 2 received the A5 processor months before the iPhone 4S came out. But, traditionally, Apple keeps its new processors first for the latest iPhone models.
Speaking of the A14 Bionic, Apple says it uses a 5nm manufacturing process and has 11.8 billion transistors. It is also capable of up to 11 trillion operations per second, thanks to the new 16-core neural engine that is twice as fast as the previous generation.
Is this the end of the Samsung Galaxy Note series as we know it? We talked about this on Orbital, our weekly tech podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
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