Apple Vision Pro is one of the most difficult pieces of technology to disassemble, but iFixit was very patient and completed the job, revealing not only the M2 chipset but also the logic board that houses the R1 coprocessor. Responsible for tackling a variety of tasks. This chip ensures that the visionOS experience is seamless, but Apple may have pursued a chiplet design using this silicon, at least according to one astute observer.
Horizontal and vertical lines around the R1 package suggest Apple used a chiplet design, but not everyone is sure
The iFixit image shows both M2 and R1, with the former showing typical packaging. Ening Carl Lee was the first to notice this difference and posted his findings on . Additionally, the same person shared what the chiplet design actually looks like in a post thread, and he shared an image of his Ponte Vecchio GPU from Intel that reveals more pronounced horizontal and vertical lines.
However, not everyone is convinced that R1 employs a chiplet design, with some saying that the coprocessor probably has low-latency fan-out memory and that the packaging is different from M2. I commented that it might look different. Still, Yinin's doubts are justified considering the textures of both chipsets look different. It's hard not to imagine a future where Apple launches a custom SoC with a chiplet design, as there are several advantages.
from @I'll fix it's teardown of the Apple Vision Pro headset has an interesting shot of the main logic board. The R1 chip (in the red box) has interesting lines all over it that divide the surface into subboxes. Does the R1 chip use a chiplet design? pic.twitter.com/wcVisrvL3o
— Yining Karlli (@yiningkarlli) February 7, 2024
The chiplet approach allows chip design companies such as Apple to incorporate CPUs, GPUs, and NPUs on a single die using different nodes. Most importantly, this design reduces development time and cost by integrating a pre-developed die into the IC package. This means Apple can have a large number of modular dies that can be used for different tasks. Judging by the images, do you think the R1 coprocessor in Apple Vision Pro uses a chiplet design? Let us know in the comments.
News source: Enin Carl Lee
