Apple wanted to make the A16 Bionic a much more powerful system on chip than it was. And if the central processor turns out to be the one that was originally intended, the graphics part of the A16 could be much more powerful. Wayne Ma reports из Information citing sources familiar with the chip’s development process.
Ray tracing was supposed to be one of the key features of the A16 Bionic. However, this also negatively affected the energy efficiency of the chip, as a result of which the battery charge disappeared before our eyes. Also, the prototype iPhones with this A16 got hot.
Apple up to the last hoped to implement the ray tracing function, but in the last phase it still abandoned this idea. As a result, the A16 received a graphics accelerator similar to that of the A15.
According to The Information, this was an unprecedented event in Apple’s history. As a result, the company had to restructure its chip development team. In addition, key process participants were removed from the project.
This has become one of the biggest challenges in Apple’s systems-on-chip development. The other is the departure of key figures in 2019. After leaving, some of them founded the startup Nuvia, which was then bought by Qualcomm.
In general, the situation in the team is so-so – a high turnover of personnel and constant squabbles. There are occasional lawsuits with system-on-a-chip startups and they also don’t improve the atmosphere in the team.
