We may have just been treated to our first glimpse of Apple’s next-generation A10 system-on-a-chip that should power the forthcoming iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus devices.
Leaked on the web through a Weibo account that belongs to Chinese repair shop GeekBar, which in the past provided genuine components for unreleased Apple products, the chip’s label suggests it was manufactured in mid-July.
What’s more, the package has the same number of pins as its predecessor, potentially alluding that it could sport the same 64-bit LPDDR4 interface like the current A9 chip.
Packaged chips are pictured at the top, with the bottom row showing the actual silicon.
As MacRumors noted, the chip is most likely in a mid-production state because this photo appears to show the RAM layer stacked on top of the A10 wafer rather than the processor itself. In addition, labels on all four edges of the package that would be consistent with a finished chip are nowhere to be seen.
The leak comes hot on the heels of a claimed iPhone 7 logic board from the same source, shown this Monday on leaked photographs and seen right below.
Rumors have indicated that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will be the sole manufacturer of A10 chips, fabricating the wafers on its 16-nanometer FinFET WLP process technology.
TSMC is also rumored to have beaten Samsung in building an Apple-designed 16-nanometer S2 chip for a second-generation Apple Watch.