Credit: Apple

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The Cupertino tech giant completed work on Apple AR chips in 2020. According to Informationphysical designs for all three AR/VR chips are complete and the silicon is now ready for test production.

Sources familiar with the development of the device say that Apple’s supply chain partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., will make the chips. Mass production is at least a year away.

Also, Information has learned more details about the Apple AR SoC. For example, it lacks the neural engine and machine learning capabilities of Apple’s other silicon.

The lack of advanced machine learning features is due to the fact that the headset is meant to communicate wirelessly with a host device, presumably an iPhone or a computer. The host device will have the necessary computing tasks to display virtual, augmented or mixed reality images.

Apple has specifically designed custom AR chips to perform better than more general third-party silicon. The chip, for example, features better wireless data transmission, compression and decompression, and power efficiency features.

All of those features are key to processing the headset’s ultra-high-resolution video, which could allow the device to replicate “the resolution and detail of what users see in real life while displaying digital images and information in front of their eyes.” “. However, the SoC also has its own central processing unit, which suggests that it could operate in a less advanced autonomous mode.

The chip’s design is based on TSMC’s 5nm fabrication process, indicating that it won’t be a cutting-edge piece of silicon when it launches. Nevertheless, information The sources said the chip in the earphones doesn’t need to be as compact or powerful as the one in an iPhone.

In addition to the SoC and the other two chips, Apple would also have finished designing the image sensor and display controller for the headphones. However, TSMC has run into bottlenecks in manufacturing the chip.

Apple is widely believed to be working on several head-mounted devices, including a lightweight “Apple Glass” device that could be paired with an iPhone and a more advanced and expensive mixed reality headset.

The specific device mentioned in Thursday’s report appears to be the MR headset, which Information previously reported would include ultra-high-resolution displays and advanced eye-tracking technology. That device could debut in 2022, with lighter, sleeker “Apple Glass” coming the following year.