Following rumors of a new iPad Pro coming up next month, 9to5Mac has now found references to a new “A14X” chip in iOS 14.5 code – which had its fifth beta released today for developers and public beta users.
Each Apple chip is referred to internally by a codename, and iOS 14.5 includes references to a single-chip GPU called “13G”, which is not used by any currently available iOS devices. Based on previous chip naming schemes and information obtained by 9to5Mac, we can say that 13G is the A14X SoC, a variant of the A14 Bionic chip.
According to our research, we also found that the A14X is based on the T8103, which is the codename for the Apple M1 chip used in the first Apple Silicon Macs. This corroborates a recent Bloomberg report that states that the next generation of iPad Pro will have “an updated processor that is on par with the fastest M1 chip”.
As rumors suggest that the only new iOS device to be released in the first half of 2021 will be the next generation iPad Pro, it’s hard to imagine that the A14X chip we discovered is intended for another device – at least for now. 9to5Mac also found that the codenames for the new iPads are J517, J518, J522 and J523.
The fact that these references were found in iOS 14.5 is also a hint that the next generation of iPad Pro is coming, since Apple would wait until iOS 15 to add support for the new chip if it was planned to arrive at the end this year. We also note that Apple hasn’t released a new build of the Xcode beta since March 2, 2021, which is something the company does when it is preparing new hardware that needs to remain a secret until the official announcement.
Based on recent rumors, new iPad Pro models will be announced by Apple “as early as April” with a Thunderbolt port, better cameras and a Mini-LED screen for the 12.9-inch model.
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