Qualcomm: Apple's 64-bit chip is two-bit gimmick
 

Top Qualcomm marketing executive Anand Chandrasekher has attacked Apple's iPhone 5S A7 processor as a "marketing gimmick".

Although there may well be a use for 64-bit chips in mobile in the future, Anand Chandrasekher claimed, right now the user isn't going to see many benefits.

"Predominantly you need it for memory addressability betyond 4GB," Chandrasekher said. "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".

The iPhone 5S has 1GB of RAM, so by Chandrasekher's estimations there's not much point to including the chip.

In an interview, AndroidAuthority reports, Chandrasekher did say Qualcomm will consider 64-bit in the future.

"From an engineering efficiency standpoint it just makes sense to go do that," he said. "Particularly the OS guys will want it at some point in time".

In September, Samsung's mobile business chief Shin Jong-kyun said his company will transition to 64 bit eventually, but not in the near future.

Some analysts believe a leap to 64-bit processing in mobile will create a divide in the market, similar to software makers leaving behind 32-bit in Windows.

http://news.techeye.net/chips/qualco...wo-bit-gimmick