iPad When the 11th Generation iPad eventually launches, which Apple SoC do you think will it have?

[Yebubbleman]

The 11th Generation iPad seems like it will be a no-show for 2024, making the 10th Generation one of the longest sold generations of standard model iPad to date.

The 7th Generation iPad mini just came out with (a binned version of) A17 Pro in tow. A17 Pro seems like the bare minimum to have Apple Intelligence on any iPhone or iPad.

Apple seems to want to eventually have all new iPads and iPhones capable of using Apple Intelligence.

All those facts out of the way, if you had to guess, which SoC do you think the 11th Generation iPad will have?

Will Apple use A17 Pro to give the 11th Generation iPad Apple Intelligence? Or will they merely bump it one generation to A15 and save Apple Intelligence for the other higher end minis?

Or, will Apple have the base model iPad follow in the iPad Air's footsteps and get either an M1 or an M2 (assuming of course that it's released after the iPad Air moves on from M2)?

Personally, I could see Apple giving the base model iPad the M1; it'll be far enough behind the other non-mini iPads to justify the price gap, but still a sizeable jump from A14 and it will still allow for Apple Intelligence.

What say you all?

 

[Johnny365]

At the bare minimum, A17 Pro. Everything Apple releases moving forward will have AI minimum specs.

 

[*~Kim~*]

I feel like it’s going to follow the Mini’s path, as it hasn’t had such a long delay since they started segmenting; a three year gap, but only a two generation processor jump. So by that logic, A16.

If the base gets A17, then the Mini only having the A17 Pro looks poor value for money, and only Mini enthusiasts will buy it. Currently, the Mini is also an in between option for those unable to stretch to the Air. Being budget is no longer the core purpose of the Mini, but extra sales will always be welcome.

Or M1 - they could literally recycle the Air 5 and force people to upgrade to a higher model for the landscape camera now that they are used to that.

 

[*~Kim~*]

At the bare minimum, A17 Pro. Everything Apple releases moving forward will have AI minimum specs.

I can’t see it given that they could have given the Mini a binned A18 Pro and didn’t do so.

 

[Johnny365]

Yeah. I'm saying A17 Pro and M1 are the minimum to support Apple's AI spec.

 

[zonai]

I'm actually leaning towards the M1. There seems to be a pattern for several generations of the iPad base model getting the chip from the previous iPad Air. The 3rd gen Air in 2019 had an A12, and the 2020 8th gen iPad had an A12. Then the 4th gen iPad Air in 2020 had an A14, and the 10th gen iPad had an A14 in 2022. By this pattern, I would expect the 11th gen iPad to have an M1, since that's what the 2022 iPad Air 5th gen had. The only problem I have with this theory is the age of the M1, at 4 years old this year compared to the 3 year max age Apple put in the base iPad SoC. iPad Mini usually gets a more cutting-edge processor than the base iPad though, so it would be strange for it to have the same chip as regular iPad.

 

[1BadManVan]

Im leaning towards the base A18 chip

 

[Yebubbleman]

M1 would make a ton of sense. It would completely eliminate the fragmentation that exists among all non-mini iPads. They'd all support Stage Manager; Apple Intelligence; Final Cut Pro, hopefully the Apple Pencil Pro, some form of keyboard/trackpad folio/case; it'd just be a matter of how high-end do you want the displays, sound, cameras, and everything else to be. Other than Apple Intelligence, Stage Manager, and Final Cut Pro, I'm not really entirely sure what else iPads need with M-series SoCs in general, considering iPadOS's inherent limitations.

 

[JPack]

Leaked identifiers already confirm A16, so my answer is A16. In addition, Apple always does n-2 with the low cost iPad, so it’s consistent.

Not sure why some people think A17 Pro is needed for AI when it isn’t. M1 has the exact same NPU as A14. So the actual requirement is A14 performance plus 8GB RAM.

 

[Johnny365]

No, the minimum requirement for AI is M1 or A17 Pro chipsets with 8GB of RAM.

 

[1BadManVan]

Leaked identifiers already confirm A16, so my answer is A16. In addition, Apple always does n-2 with the low cost iPad, so it’s consistent.

Not sure why some people think A17 Pro is needed for AI when it isn’t. M1 has the exact same NPU as A14. So the actual requirement is A14 performance plus 8GB RAM.

Because the minimum for AI is listed by apple as the A17 pro and the M1? Thus why no other iPhones previous to the 15 pro don’t support AI

 

[JPack]

Because the minimum for AI is listed by apple as the A17 pro and the M1? Thus why no other iPhones previous to the 15 pro don’t support AI

Apple never listed the processor requirements. People only made that assumption without understanding the underlying requirements.

Only 15 Pro and 16 have 8GB RAM.

M1 NPU = 11 TOPS
A16 NPU = 17 TOPS

A16 is more than enough to run AI.

 

[nicho]

Leaked identifiers already confirm A16, so my answer is A16. In addition, Apple always does n-2 with the low cost iPad, so it’s consistent.

Not sure why some people think A17 Pro is needed for AI when it isn’t. M1 has the exact same NPU as A14. So the actual requirement is A14 performance plus 8GB RAM.

Because A14, A15, A16 were never produced with 8GB RAM. The requirement could be an A4 with 8GB RAM and for practical purposes that requirement, too, would be irrelevant - only A17 Pro onwards has enough RAM.

iPad has probably reached another peak now (following the current design language) where they could update it with A17 Pro like the mini and leave it for a few years like the Air 2 (which was sold for 3 years and is still receiving security updates after 10 years).

 

[nicho]

Apple never listed the processor requirements. People only made that assumption without understanding the underlying requirements.

Only 15 Pro and 16 have 8GB RAM.

M1 NPU = 11 TOPS
A16 NPU = 17 TOPS

A16 is more than enough to run AI.

Are you operating under the misconception that RAM in the A series SoC works like a 90s tower PC where you can just slot in more?

A16 doesn't have 8GB RAM, so it is not at all enough to run AI.

 

[Abazigal]

Leaked identifiers already confirm A16, so my answer is A16. In addition, Apple always does n-2 with the low cost iPad, so it’s consistent.

Not sure why some people think A17 Pro is needed for AI when it isn’t. M1 has the exact same NPU as A14. So the actual requirement is A14 performance plus 8GB RAM.

I don't see Apple maintaining one assembly line solely for a custom A16 processor with 8gb ram when it would probably be more cost-efficient to simply use an existing processor that already exists.

 

[1BadManVan]

Apple never listed the processor requirements. People only made that assumption without understanding the underlying requirements.

Only 15 Pro and 16 have 8GB RAM.

M1 NPU = 11 TOPS
A16 NPU = 17 TOPS

A16 is more than enough to run AI.

A16 does not come with 8gb of ram, and you think apple is going to make a custom A16 just for the base model iPad to support Ai? Never going to happen. Happily revisit this thread when its announced just to say i told you so

 

[JPack]

Because A14, A15, A16 were never produced with 8GB RAM. The requirement could be an A4 with 8GB RAM and for practical purposes that requirement, too, would be irrelevant - only A17 Pro onwards has enough RAM.

iPad has probably reached another peak now (following the current design language) where they could update it with A17 Pro like the mini and leave it for a few years like the Air 2 (which was sold for 3 years and is still receiving security updates after 10 years).

A12Z was never produced with 16GB RAM either. But the designers weren’t dumb enough to make to be able to address only 6GB RAM just because it only had that amount in iPad Pro.

DTK makes it clear that even the A12X/Z chip launched in 2018 could already handle 16GB.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Leaked identifiers already confirm A16, so my answer is A16.

I'm not doubting you at all since you generally are on top of your ****. Do you have a source? This is the kind of stuff I'd love to see on MacRumors.com's main page.

Are you operating under the misconception that RAM in the A series SoC works like a 90s tower PC where you can just slot in more?

A16 doesn't have 8GB RAM, so it is not at all enough to run AI.

No, he's operating under actual historical facts that Apple can produce versions of any SoC with more RAM if they choose to do so.

A8 had 1GB of RAM on the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and 6th Generation iPod touch. One year after it first arrived on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, a version of it with 2GB of RAM debuted on both the iPad mini 4 and the Fourth Generation Apple TV (aka "Apple TV HD"). Those were literally the only products that got the 2GB of RAM variant of A8, to my knowledge. And, for all anyone knows, such a variant could come to an updated Apple TV as well (though, it would be a pretty minor bump over the A15 currently in use).

There's nothing stopping Apple from producing a version of A16 that has 8GB of RAM, especially if that's an even cheaper entry point into Apple Intelligence. Plus Apple could still give users reasons for going for higher-end iPads.

The only weird thing about it from any kind of marketing standpoint would be that the iPad mini and the iPad Pro would have Ray-Tracing graphics support while the standard iPad and iPad Air would not. Though, it's not like this isn't still the case of those iPads when it comes to the rear camera flash. And it's also not like that still isn't the case (regarding ray tracing graphics support) today.

I didn't realize that the A16's only limitation preventing it from gaining Apple Intelligence support was RAM. A16 would make a ton of sense in that case.

 

[JPack]

I don't see Apple maintaining one assembly line solely for a custom A16 processor with 8gb ram when it would probably be more cost-efficient to simply use an existing processor that already exists.

Do you really think attaching a different DRAM chip to the package is a “custom” job?

Apple sources DRAM from SK, Samsung, and Micron for A18. Are they all “custom” jobs?

 

[Yebubbleman]

Because A14, A15, A16 were never produced with 8GB RAM. The requirement could be an A4 with 8GB RAM and for practical purposes that requirement, too, would be irrelevant - only A17 Pro onwards has enough RAM.

iPad has probably reached another peak now (following the current design language) where they could update it with A17 Pro like the mini and leave it for a few years like the Air 2 (which was sold for 3 years and is still receiving security updates after 10 years).

The Air 2 is not still receiving regular security updates. Just high-profile severe vulnerability patches as they come up.

 

[Teelyttle]

A18 or A17PRO.

 

[JPack]

I'm not doubting you at all since you generally are on top of your ****. Do you have a source? This is the kind of stuff I'd love to see on MacRumors.com's main page.

Uncovered Apple chip identifiers reveal surprising slate of unreleased iPads

Several models are—or were—in development.

www.macworld.com

 

[nicho]

No, he's operating under actual historical facts that Apple can produce versions of any SoC with more RAM if they choose to do so.

A8 had 1GB of RAM on the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and 6th Generation iPod touch. One year after it first arrived on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, a version of it with 2GB of RAM debuted on both the iPad mini 4 and the Fourth Generation Apple TV (aka "Apple TV HD"). Those were literally the only products that got the 2GB of RAM variant of A8, to my knowledge. And, for all anyone knows, such a variant could come to an updated Apple TV as well (though, it would be a pretty minor bump over the A15 currently in use).

There's nothing stopping Apple from producing a version of A16 that has 8GB of RAM, especially if that's an even cheaper entry point into Apple Intelligence. Plus Apple could still give users reasons for going for higher-end iPads.

The only weird thing about it from any kind of marketing standpoint would be that the iPad mini and the iPad Pro would have Ray-Tracing graphics support while the standard iPad and iPad Air would not. Though, it's not like this isn't still the case of those iPads when it comes to the rear camera flash. And it's also not like that still isn't the case (regarding ray tracing graphics support) today.

I didn't realize that the A16's only limitation preventing it from gaining Apple Intelligence support was RAM. A16 would make a ton of sense in that case.

The mental gymnastics to make the argument that continuing production of an existing SoC, including more RAM... and starting up production of a variant of an old chip that they now only use for the 'older and slightly cheaper' model iPhone filling out the lineup...

Common sense dictates they won't do it now - you've missed a HUGE weird thing from a marketing standpoint - the potential for pissing off a huge number of iPhone 14 Pro/iPhone 15 owners who won't understand that their A16 device doesn't have the necessary 8GB RAM and might just think they are being shafted... remember that iPhone makes up a much bigger portion of Apple's revenue than iPad.

The easiest thing for Apple to do would be to use the same model they did with the 9th/10th gen shift... Introduce an 11th gen model with the same A17 Pro as the mini at $100 higher, then drop the price and scrap the 10th gen in a year's time (edit to add: once Apple Intelligence is actually available and more feature complete). Let them both sit for a few years, then resume yearly updates once sales stagnate or a new design language is on the horizon...

 

[Yebubbleman]

Uncovered Apple chip identifiers reveal surprising slate of unreleased iPads

Several models are—or were—in development.

www.macworld.com

I don't see A16 referenced here. I still love your theory though!

EDIT: I've seen it. Not sure why I didn't spot it at first. Oh well!

 

[nicho]

A12Z was never produced with 16GB RAM either. But the designers weren’t dumb enough to make to be able to address only 6GB RAM just because it only had that amount in iPad Pro.

DTK makes it clear that even the A12X/Z chip launched in 2018 could already handle 16GB.

Apple isn't run by designers... come on man. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Just because you can take a processor that was in a flagship iPhone that was discontinued 13 months ago and add a new variant of it that adds 8GB RAM instead of 6GB doesn't mean you should when there's already production of A17 Pro for the mini. Reuse of parts is the foundation of Apple's success...

The DTK was produced in such small numbers they probably changed the RAM by hand in a backroom in Shenzhen rather than make any changes on the production line. Because $$$.