The current shortage of DRAM memory chips is reportedly forcing Apple to reduce its plans for the upcoming A20 chip. This chip is set to power the base iPhone 18, showing that even Apple is feeling the effects of the memory market’s ups and downs.
Until recently, Apple’s upcoming A20 chip was expected to move from TSMC’s InFO (Integrated Fan-Out) packaging technology to the more advanced WMCM (Wafer-level Multi-Chip Module) packaging. InFO combines components like the main processor (AP) and DRAM onto a single piece without a traditional base. WMCM, on the other hand, allows several individual parts – such as the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine – to be combined into one compact package. This offers a lot of flexibility in how chips can be arranged.
In fact, WMCM allows for different chip setups by using various combinations of CPU and GPU cores. Also, this packaging lets the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine parts work independently, asking for just the right amount of power for a specific task. This reduces overall power use. But its biggest advantage is that it allows RAM to be placed directly on the chip wafer next to the processor, not just beside it. This makes data access much faster.
WMCM also helps manage heat better and connects components more densely by placing all important parts on a redistribution layer, removing the need for a silicon interposer. Now, for the main point of today’s news. Tipster Jukan reports that the ongoing DRAM shortage, along with rising prices, is forcing Apple to drop WMCM packaging for the standard A20 chip.
Apple’s main reason for switching to WMCM packaging was to combine more RAM with faster data access – thanks to placing DRAM directly on the wafer – for AI tasks on the device. Apple will reportedly keep WMCM packaging for the A20 Pro chip, which will likely power the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max models. However, even these higher-end models won’t get an increase in RAM storage. Apparently, Apple thinks their current 12GB LPDDR5 modules are enough to get the most benefit from WMCM packaging.
This also means the base iPhone 18 probably won’t have 12GB of RAM, as some in the industry recently suggested. This matches our own recent analysis, which showed that a 12GB LPDDR5 module would cost Apple $180 per unit in 2027, around when the base iPhone 18 is expected to launch. This makes adding more RAM to the low-profit base model too expensive.
