The significance of Apple's 64-bit processor to mobile phones

Apple recently introduced the iPhone 5S new phone, this phone uses the A7 processor, its biggest feature is to support 64-bit computing. The A7 processor also has an attached processor M7. As a result, 5S is quite powerful, and you can also see Apple's future plans.

In the end, 64-bit upgrades In theory, the 64-bit A7 processor means that the iPhone performance will be greatly improved, performance and speed can be doubled; but in the real environment, there may be only 15-30% performance increase.

Some programs, if developed specifically for 64-bit iPhones, can make better use of CPU and RAM, but so far there are not many such programs.

Use a simple example to analogize 64-bit benefits:

There is a huge library with many books and an administrator to help you find books. The administrator has 32 assistants. They ride bicycles to fetch the books and then hand them over to the administrator. Someone who came to borrow a book one day wanted all the books about dinosaurs. The library had 65 related books, so the assistants would run three times. The first one is 32, the second is 32, and the last one is an assistant. In any case, although only one book is taken in the end, it will take three months.

If the library has 64 assistants, it only needs to run 2 miles. This will greatly save time, but note that time is not shortened by half, because in the second time, it is still only an assistant to run and retrieve a book, although there are 63 assistants idle, but can not let The time is shortened.

If the library has 256 related books, 32 assistants will run 8 inches, and 64 will only run 4 miles.

The operation of the iPhone is similar to this. It acquires data from the memory. 32-bit data can be processed in 32-bit data in one clock cycle, and 64-bit data can be obtained in 64-bit data. As a result, speed, performance, and efficiency are improved.

If the A7 is powerful enough to be used in a laptop to install a 64-bit processor in a smartphone, it is too destructive. With 64-bit processors, running memory can be increased up to 4GB, and today most smart phones only have 2GB or 3GB. In addition, the operating system has to be adjusted to give full play to 64-bit features.

Some people think that if the 64-bit chip A7 may appear on the MacBook, it makes more sense to place the 64-bit on the laptop.

Apple has long ported OS X to the ARM architecture. If A7 is powerful enough, it may use A7 to run OS X. Currently MacBook Air uses Intel's Haswell processor, while other models use three generations of Core i5 and i7 processors.

As for the M7 satellite processor, it mainly collects sensor data from accelerometers, compasses, and gyroscopes to provide data for the A7 processor. M7 can be integrated with some wearable devices.

Apple's A7 processor is the first 64-bit processor for mobile devices, while most other smart phones use only 32-bit chips. This advanced technology highlights Apple’s ability to promote semiconductor technology, although the company’s motivation for adopting this technology is not yet clear.

Intel and other high-end personal computer or server wafer manufacturers have adopted 64-bit computing technology years ago. The most direct reason is to allow the device to support DRAM memory chips with extremely high data capacity, thereby greatly improving the performance of tasks such as running databases.

The 64-bit computing concept is based on the underlying technology promoted by the mobile device ARM Holdings. Since smartphones have almost no space for installing DRAM chips, this concept mainly attracts companies that are trying to transition from the small device business to the enterprise computer field.

ARM has developed a 64-bit processor core design for the above-mentioned application purposes, but it is expected that those companies that have obtained this technology license will not ship until next year. Applied Micro Circuits has also advanced its own server 64-bit computing technology, but other companies such as Nvidia are not expected to introduce 64-bit computing chips by 2015. In addition, none of the companies that use ARM's underlying technologies have publicly talked about 64-bit computing chips for mobile devices.

So many “hows” and “why” may have to wait until the analysis agency tears away the A7 plastic package and begins to study what is specific on the wafer and what may affect performance.

In the real-time blog about the conference, AnandTech hardware experts sounded surprised and admired the Apple initiative, but they are not entirely sure that users will feel its advantages.

They said that it is clear that doubling the performance is not caused by the processor rising to 64 bits.