According to a report in Economy**, the next generation of A18 and M4 chips for future iPhone and Mac models will use an upgraded neural engine with more cores.
The upgraded Neural Engine will improve the performance of AI machine learning tasks. Rumor has it that iOS 18 will bring new generative AI features to Siri, Shortcuts, Messages, Apple Music, and more.
During an earnings conference this month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is working on generative AI and will share details later this year.
The A18 series chips are expected to debut in the iPhone 16 models in September. Previously, it was rumored that some generative AI features may be exclusive to iPhone 16 models, and the upgraded Neural Engine may be one of the reasons.
Over the years, Apple has improved the performance of the Neural Engine even though the number of cores has not changed. For example, Apple says that the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro chip's neural engine is 2x faster than the iPhone 14 Pro's.
As for Macs, most models with Apple silicon come with a 16-core Neural Engine. The only exceptions are the Mac Studio and Mac Pro, which have a 1-core Neural Engine when configured with an M1 Ultra or M2 Ultra chip.
* Weifeng.com.