Will the 11th Gen iPad Be Left out of Apple Intelligence?

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Among a broad assortment of products we’re anticipating from Apple this year, one of the first on the list of expectations is an upgraded 11th-generation iPad. After all, Apple’s most affordable iPad hasn’t been updated in nearly two and a half years, so it’s safe to say a new one is due. However, a new report is casting some doubt on whether it will support Apple’s latest AI features.
Until recently, the conventional wisdom has been that Apple wouldn’t even imagine releasing a new iPhone, iPad, or Mac without support for Apple Intelligence. The entire iPhone 16 lineup has it, every Mac released since late 2020 has it, as does nearly every higher-end iPad model. That’s because Apple Intelligence works on any device with an M-series chip or an A17 Pro or later.
There are a few outliers among this decade’s iPads. The iPad Pro and iPad Air released in 2020, the 2021 iPad mini, and all of the entry-level models — those that simply bear the name “iPad” unadorned by any suffixes all use various A-series chips, from the A12Z (2020 iPad Pro) to the A15 Bionic (2021 iPad mini). However, Apple added the M1 chip to the iPad Pro in 2021 and followed that up with an M1 iPad Air in early 2022. After a three-year hiatus, the iPad mini gained an A17 Pro chip last fall.
Among the current lineup, this leaves the 10th-generation iPad as the only model that doesn’t support Apple Intelligence since it still uses an A14 chip — a generation older than even the one in the 2021 iPad mini.
So, it stood to reason that Apple wouldn’t leave its entry-level tablet out, especially since even the next-generation iPhone SE, expected to be released around the same time, is almost certain to gain Apple Intelligence support. Most believed that Apple would add either an A17 Pro chip, similar to the iPad mini, or possibly even an M1 chip, inviting the 11th-generation iPad into the AI club at the minimum level.
However, information from a new leaker has raised questions about whether this will be the case. Shared by MacRumors, a “private account on social media platform X with a good track record” claims that the new iPad will be equipped with what is effectively an A16 Bionic chip.

That’s the same chip used in the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 14 Pro models, which most definitely do not support Apple Intelligence. However, it’s worth noting that the leak doesn’t specifically say an “A16” but rather, as reported by MacRumors, “a chip that has the identifier T8120.”
T8120 is the internal identifier for the architecture of the A16 Bionic chip. However, these designations refer to the core silicon and not how the chip is packaged. For example, many Apple Watch chips use the same architecture but different packaging, such as this year’s S10 and last year’s S9, which share the same T8310 silicon.
While even leakers with proven track records can be wrong sometimes, it’s possible that the iPad 11 could gain an A16-like chip and still support Apple Intelligence.
Consider that the A16 Bionic debuted in 2022 in the iPhone 14 Pro models. The chip was fabricated using a quasi-4-nanometer process that’s more modern than the M2 chip that came out a few months earlier, which used the same 5nm process as the 2021 A15 Bionic.
Further, the A16 Bionic has a Neural Engine that supports 17 trillion operations per second (TOPS). The M2 chip’s Neural Engine runs at 15.8 TOPS, and the M1 comes in at only 11 TOPS. This means the A16 Bionic has a Neural Engine that’s more than capable of handling Apple Intelligence. What it doesn’t have is the RAM necessary to run Apple’s large language models (LLMs).

By all reports, Apple Intelligence requires 8 GB of RAM. That’s the minimum on every M-series Mac and iPad, but the iPhone didn’t make the move to 8 GB until the A17 Pro came to the iPhone 15 Pro. All of Apple’s A16-equipped iPhones have only 6 GB of RAM. That’s not enough to drive Apple Intelligence.
However, there’s no rule that says the A16 must have only 6 GB of RAM. Apple could repackage the T8120 silicon inside into a variation of the chip with 8 GB or more. It could also easily give the resulting chip a new name, like A16 Pro or A17, to set it apart from the A16 and make it clear why the new iPad supports Apple Intelligence while the iPhone 15 does not.
It’s also worth noting that TSMC’s Arizona facility is about to ramp up production of A16 chips — or at least A16-like chips. Reports of what’s being fabricated there are based on educated conjecture since the N4P process has only ever been used by Apple for the A16 Bionic, S9, and S10. However, that process is for the T8120 and T8310 silicon, not the final packaged chips. While Apple might still be producing A16 chips for the iPhone 15 (which it still sells), it’s also possible that what’s coming off the line in Arizona are actually “A16 Pro” chips for Apple’s next-gen iPad.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]