A Weibo leaker has reconstructed the A20 Pro chip’s architecture from solder ball diagrams, revealing a seven-core GPU paired with a 96-bit memory interface for LPDDR5x RAM, up from six GPU cores and a 64-bit interface on the A19 Pro. The changes suggest meaningful graphics improvements and a 50% increase in memory bandwidth, but Apple’s manufacturing partners are racing against the clock to secure enough DRAM to complete production ahead of the expected September 9 launch.
The Leaked A20 Pro Architecture: GPU and Memory Details
The A20 Pro retains its six CPU cores (two performance, four efficiency) from the A19 Pro, but the GPU gains one core, moving from six to seven for a 16% boost. The efficiency cores gain L2 cache as well: 8MB on the A20 Pro versus 6MB on the A19 Pro, while performance cores keep their existing 16MB L2 cache.
The most significant memory upgrade is the 96-bit interface for LPDDR5x RAM, a jump from the A19 Pro’s 64-bit interface. This 50% increase in memory bandwidth could amplify graphics performance beyond the GPU core count alone, since graphics tasks are typically memory-bound. The GPU cores sit at the top of the die, with the CPU at the center.
How the Leak Was Reconstructed
Weibo user Fried White Rice, who claims a track record of accurate chip analysis, mapped solder ball positions on the circuit board and overlaid them against die-level images to infer the A20 Pro’s configuration. The images themselves are not of the chip but rather diagrams showing where the chip will attach to the underlying circuit board; the leaker then inferred architecture and capabilities from that attachment pattern.
Determining GPU core count from solder diagrams alone is inexact work. Six, seven, and eight cores were all plausible based on the available data, but the seven-core configuration emerged as the most probable arrangement after testing several dozen configurations across the three possible counts.
