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The new
iPhone‘s 64-bit chip is a “gimmick” with “zero benefit,” according to rival chipmaker Qualcomm.
Qualcomm boss Anand Chandrasekher says the Apple A7 64-bit processor is a “marketing gimmick. There’s zero benefit a consumer gets from that”.
“Predominantly… you need it for memory addressability beyond 4GB. That’s it,” says Chandrasekher. “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.”
But that won’t stop Qualcomm from making a 64-bit chip, because “the OS guys will want it at some point in time.”
The 5S is powered by a 64-bit dual-core chip backed up by 1GB of RAM. Benchmark tests show the 5S blowing away even the quad-core Samsung Galaxy S4, and neck-and-neck with the ridiculously powerful quad-core Sony Xperia Z1. But how much of that speed is down to the 64-bit power of the chip is open to question.
Chandrasekher also admitted he’s “not a huge fan” of high-tech specs Google Glass, as Qualcomm takes a different tack in the burgeoning wearable technology market with its new Qualcomm Toq smart watch.
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