Apple is internally testing a new external display with a dedicated A13 chip and a Neural Engine.
According to 9To5Mac, the new display is being developed under the codename J327, though the details about the technical specifications are unclear at this point in time.
The report said that the new display will have an Apple-made SoC, which right now is the A13 Bionic chip — the same used in the iPhone 11 lineup.
Along with the A13 chip, the external display features the Neural Engine, which accelerates machine learning tasks.
Although rumours suggest that Apple has been working on a less expensive display for regular users, the new external display with a dedicated SoC will likely be a new model to replace the current Pro Display XDR in the future.
Back in 2016, right after Apple’s Thunderbolt Display was discontinued, rumours had suggested that Apple was working on a replacement with a high-resolution display and a built-in GPU.
While the company had indeed launched its own premium external display in 2019, the Pro Display XDR does not come with a GPU as the rumours predicted.
The current report suggests that Apple has not given up on its plans to launch an external display with some sort of SoC, at least internally.
Having a CPU/GPU built into the external display could help Macs deliver high-resolution graphics without using all the resources of the computer’s internal chip.
Apple could also combine the power of the display SoC with the Mac’s SoC to provide even more performance for running intensive graphic tasks, the report said.
