Apple Overhauls A20 Pro Chip Packaging to Keep iPhone 18 Pro Series Cooler

A leaked motherboard design for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max reveals Apple is overhauling how its A20 Pro chip package handles heat, swapping a vertical memory stack for a side-by-side layout that could keep the Pro series running cooler under load.

The schematics surfaced in a 630GB data dump stolen from Tata Electronics, one of Apple's key manufacturing partners in India, following a cyberattack that became public on June 22. AppleInsider confirmed the files include logic board designs for both Pro models and technical documentation for the A20 Pro processor, internally codenamed "Borneo."

The A20 Pro is tipped to adopt a wafer-level multi-chip packaging approach (WMCM). Instead of stacking memory dies vertically on top of the SoC, the redesign places them alongside it within the same package. The shift improves heat dissipation and could allow more flexible memory configurations in future generations.

Memory bandwidth is getting a meaningful boost. The interface widens to 96 bits from 64 bits on prior chips, potentially increasing bandwidth by up to 50% before accounting for any gains from faster memory modules.

Total RAM is expected to stay fixed at 12 GB. Sources disagree on whether Apple will use LPDDR6 or stick with LPDDR5X. The leaked documents also reference a next-generation Image Signal Processor (ISP) and an upgraded Neural Processing Unit, though full specs remain under wraps.

The CPU and GPU cores will likely see gains from TSMC's N2 node, which increases transistor density. The breach itself offers a rare look inside Apple's supply chain security.

Two videos recovered from the dump show Apple using deliberately misleading prototype packaging during iPhone 17 Pro development, displaying a camera module resembling the M4 iPad Pro rather than the actual iPhone design. The tactic was designed to confuse employees and assembly line workers who might leak information.

Tata appears to have enforced stricter confidentiality measures than other Apple suppliers. Several documents had color information stripped under NDA requirements, a level of protection not consistently applied by Foxconn in previous years.

The C2 modem, internally codenamed "Ganymede," will be integrated into both iPhone 18 Pro models, marking another step in Apple's effort to reduce reliance on Qualcomm. The modem would succeed the C1 and offer tighter integration with Apple's hardware ecosystem.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has outlined roughly 20 products Apple expects to ship through the end of 2027, with the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max arriving this September alongside the A20 Pro built on TSMC's 2nm process.