Apple Vision Pro headset to reportedly use custom-designed DRAM Chip

Apple’s upcoming AR (augmented reality) headset Vision Pro will reportedly feature a new type of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) that has been custom designed to support Apple’s R1 input processing chip.

Apple Vision Pro is powered by a pair of chips, including an M2 chip and an R1 chip, according to MacRumors. The Korea Herald first reported the news.

The M2 chip is in charge of processing content, running the visionOS operating system, executing computer vision algorithms, and providing graphical content, while the R1 chip processes all information from the headset’s 12 cameras, five sensors, and six microphones and streams images to the displays in 12 milliseconds.

To meet the R1’s high-speed demands, the headset will use a 1-gigabit low latency DRAM chip supplied by SK hynix, which has an increased number of input and output pins to reduce delays, the report said. Apple’s $3,500 headset is set to go on sale early next year, beginning in the US.

Meanwhile, Apple has reportedly slashed Vision Pro Mixed Reality (MR) headset production plans amid manufacturing challenges in China. According to a report in The Financial Times, citing sources, Apple has reportedly asked its main Vision Pro assembler Luxshare to make fewer than 400,000 units next year. It is reportedly down from an initial internal sales target of one million.

— IANS