Apple goes against the grain. Where Android saves, it bets on width

There are still a few months left until the iPhone 18 Pro presentation, but leaks have already started in full swing. This time, the layout of the Apple A20 Pro chip, which is expected to power this year’s premium models, has appeared online. And if the information is correct, Apple is preparing several changes worth noting — and in one respect, it even goes against current market trends.

What the leak reveals

The main novelty is expected to be a wider memory bus. From the current 64 bits, it is expected to expand to 96 bits, which alone increases memory throughput by roughly half — even before any potential acceleration of the memories themselves. However, it’s worth adding context to this number: it’s a theoretical ceiling and a marketing “up to” figure; the actual value in practice is usually lower. Sources differ regarding the memory type; the author of the original diagram bets on the proven LPDDR5X, while others speculate about newer LPDDR6. In any case, the total amount of RAM is expected to remain at 12 GB.

iPhone 18 Pro or (Prm) motherboard leaked

A20 Pro chip now adopt WMCM packaging, which move the DRAM to the side of the package, allowing for better thermal dissipation. It also get LP6 96-bit memory

Die size is roughly the same as A19 Pro, and the NPU seems to be beefed up pic.twitter.com/Y0kUjRi2Ma

— Reptalica (@Reptalicant) June 26, 2026

The second change is a new package arrangement. Instead of the current vertical stacking of memory on top of the processor, Apple is expected to place memory chips next to the SoC itself. The reason is practical — better heat dissipation, which has plagued iPhone Pro models for several generations. This is to be complemented by a more powerful NPU for artificial intelligence tasks. The chip size remains similar to the A19 Pro (around 98.6 mm²), with significant improvements expected from new cores and higher transistor density thanks to TSMC’s 2nm N2 process.

Here, Apple goes against the grain

And it is precisely the wider bus that is most interesting. When we look at the current top Android chips, an interesting paradox emerges. Both the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Dimensity 9500 still make do with a 64-bit memory bus and compensate for the lack of width with fast and large caches — for example, the Dimensity 9500 has 10 MB of system cache, which reduces pressure on the main memory. For comparison, Snapdragon achieves a throughput of around 85 GB/s with this configuration.

Until recently, Apple maintained the same narrow bus as its competitors and relied on its own massive cache. If it now truly switches to 96 bits, it will surpass both of the most powerful Android chips in bus width. This is a significant turnaround for Apple, which is usually rather conservative in memory architecture.

Why it makes sense

The explanation lies in two letters: AI. Large language models running directly on the phone are hungry primarily for memory throughput, not raw computational power. If Apple wants to catch up with the lead its competitors have built in the AI field with its Apple Intelligence features, it needs to properly feed data to a larger NPU — and a wider bus is precisely the right tool.

The new package also makes sense. Android flagships, thanks to large caches and sophisticated cooling, often maintain performance better under long-term load than iPhones, which tend to heat up and throttle. Moving the memory next to the chip could erase this difference. And thanks to exclusive access to the 2nm process, Apple also maintains its traditional lead in manufacturing technology. For now, however, only one certainty applies — it’s all a leak, so let’s take all numbers with a grain of salt until the official presentation.

Do you follow what’s happening inside the chips, or are you mainly interested in the overall experience with your phone?

Source: X