The iPhone X is very powerful, but new rumors suggest the iPad Pro 3 might be significantly more so, as it could use an octa-core A11X Bionic chipset.
That’s up from a hexa-core A11 Bionic chipset in the iPhone X and a hexa-core A10X Fusion chipset in the iPad Pro 10.5.
The cores will apparently be split between three high-power ‘Monsoon’ ones and five energy-efficient ‘Mistral’ ones, which is one more of each kind than the A11 Bionic.
All of this information comes from sources in the Taiwanese supply chain, speaking to MyDrivers, and they’ve also said that the A11X Bionic will be made using a 7nm process. That’s down from a 10nm process for the A11 Bionic, and will likely mean the new chip is even more efficient.
AI skills and an impending launch
Additionally, the A11X Bionic is said to sport an M11 motion co-processor and a neural processing unit (NPU) for AI tasks, the latter of which suggests that the iPad Pro 3 could sport Face ID, as that’s largely powered by AI.
Finally, the sources claim that this chipset will debut at the end of the first quarter or beginning of the second quarter of 2018, so likely around March or April, and if the chipset lands then, the iPad Pro 3 presumably will too.
Of course, this is all just rumors for now, but if true the iPad Pro 3 could be a significant upgrade on previous models, and could arrive sooner than you might have expected.
Via BGR
