When Apple launched the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus last year, they also introduced a brand new chipset in the form of the A10 Fusion which is Apple’s first quad-core chipset to debut in an iPhone. Prior to that Apple’s chipsets have typically been of the dual-core variety, so the step up to quad-core was a huge shift.
However that will apparently be changing with this year’s iPhones. Developer Steve Troughton-Smith recently tweeted (via AppleInsider) that with the A11 Fusion chipset expected to debut on this year’s iPhones, Apple is rumored to introduce a 6 core chipset which is said to consist of four high-powered “Mistral” cores and two “Monsoon” cores.
A11 Fusion is a 4+2 core device https://t.co/mqtIKcjBmG
— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) September 10, 2017
In a way this is similar to the big.LITTLE architecture whereby chipsets will sport multiple cores, but with some cores being dedicated for more powerful/intensive applications, while the other cores will be used for less intensive applications or processes. The idea is that this will improve efficiency, and also at the same time help conserve battery life since the less powerful cores will be utilized for more mundane tasks.
It should be noted that the A11 Fusion will not be Apple’s first hexa-core chipset. That honor actually belongs to the A10X Fusion that debuted in this year’s 12.9-inch and 10.5-inch iPad Pros, but it will mark the first time that the iPhones will be getting a hexa-core chipset, although at this point it is unclear if the A11 Fusion will be exclusive to the iPhone X, or if it will be available across Apple’s 2017 iPhone lineup.