A20 Chips in iPhone 18 Models Again Rumored to Feature New Design

cancelling my iPhone 17 Pro preorder then

They should name them A55 in accordance with liquid ass

In any case, at least some A20 chips would have RAM integrated directly onto the same wafer as the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine, rather than sitting adjacent to the chip and connected via a silicon interposer. This could contribute to faster performance for both overall tasks and Apple Intelligence, and longer battery life from improved power efficiency. A20 chips may take up less space in the iPhone compared to previous chips.

TSMC InFO Pop , which Apple has historically used, is already vertical.



https://www.tsmc.com/english/dedicatedFoundry/technology/InFO

There is also an InFO-OS. ( on substrate. ) which is another 'tab' on the above link. THe 'in' in Info was always about being 'integrated'. More a matter of which mechanism for integration.

More likely that Wafer-level Multi-chip Module (WMCM) packaging is switching to side by side. Both Logic and DRAM are 'attached' to a substrate chip ( 'wafer' ... in so much that the chip on bottom is larger than the the chips being attached on top).

The InFo-POP involves creating that 'canyon' in the blue/black area above. If just bond the two smaller chips to the larger substrate chip then do not have to 'build up' that support foundation structure to host the DRAM on. Also limited in how many wires can run to the DRAM on top if logic chip is 'large-ish' relative to the DRAM .

Switching to 'side-by-side' would be moving toward what the M-series has always used.

Two-dimensional 'space savings' is probably not happening. Some chance that the overall volume might go down if had to keep the height over the 'logic' higher to deal with thermal issues (e.g., can't attach a heat sink directly to the logic chip. ) . The two dimensional bloat of the phones over time contribute to enabling that change in trade-off. Also what get is incrementally 'thinner' .

If Apple is going to be pushing. A-xx-Pro chips into service as Mac SoCs then bounding the logic chip with disconnection from heat sink makes even less sense.

The only change I want to see...

"iPhone 18 Mini"

cancelling my iPhone 17 Pro preorder then

Its getting out of hand. I have been cancelling since iPhone 14.

“iPhone 18 Pro Mini” FTFY.

Won't happen. The general consumer (read: non macrumors forum poster) will see it and say "This is smaller than the iPhone 16E, so why isn't it cheaper?" Apple hasn't been able to brake consumer perceptions of "bigger = more expensive, smaller = less expensive" paradigm, heck most of its product lineup follows that rule. It's why base iPad sales have completely cannibalized the iPad mini sales, and why iPhone SE sales completely cannibalized the iPhone 12 mini and 13 mini sales. Consumers simply can't comprehend smaller phones that are also more expensive.