Qualcomm thinks Apple’s 64 bit A7 processor confers “zero benefit” to consumers
2 min. read
Published on
Share this article
Improve this guide
Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help MSPoweruser sustain the editorial team Read more
TechWorld reports that Qualcomm is not impressed with Apple’s new 64 bit A7 processor, as featured in the latest iPhone 5S.
"I know there’s a lot of noise because Apple did [64-bit] on their A7," said Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Qualcomm. "I think they are doing a marketing gimmick. There’s zero benefit a consumer gets from that."
"Predominantly… you need it for memory addressability beyond 4GB. That’s it. You don’t really need it for performance, and the kinds of applications that 64-bit get used in mostly are large, server-class applications," said Chandrasekher, who previously ran Intel’s mobile platforms group.
The first practical 64-bit ARM-based chips are expected to appear in servers like Hewlett-Packard’s Moonshot. Companies like AppliedMicro, Advanced Micro Devices and Calxeda are expected to ship 64-bit ARM-based server chips starting next year.
"From an engineering efficiency standpoint it just makes sense to go do that. Particularly the OS guys will want it at some point in time," said Chandrasekher.
The chips may then trickle down to mobile, but are unlikely to have a great impact there.
The latest generation of the iPhone has been characterized by a variety of poorly implemented gimmicks, ranging from iOS 7 which is causing motion sickness in many users, to a fingerprint reader which can be fooled by wood glue. Despite Apple’s announcement of record 9 million opening weekend sales many analysts believe the new handset has in fact been much less warmly received, with iPhone 5c phones already reportedly piling up in stores.
