December 11, 2024
Qualcomm Employee: Apple's 64-Bit A7 Chip 'Set Off Panic' In the Industry

Qualcomm Employee: Apple's 64-Bit A7 Chip 'Set Off Panic' In the Industry

Posted December 17, 2013 at 12:18am by iClarified
When Apple released the 64-Bit A7 Chip, it reportedly "hit [Qualcomm] in the gut" and caused 'panic' in the industry, according to a Qualcomm employee. Interestingly enough, when the chip was first announced, a Qualcomm executive claimed it was a "marketing gimmick." That statement was later retracted and the executive who made those remarks was reassigned.

“The 64-bit Apple chip hit us in the gut,” says the Qualcomm employee. “Not just us, but everyone, really. We were slack-jawed, and stunned, and unprepared. It’s not that big a performance difference right now, since most current software won’t benefit. But in Spinal Tap terms it’s like, 32 more, and now everyone wants it.”

“The roadmap for 64-bit was nowhere close to Apple’s, since no one thought it was that essential,” the Qualcomm insider says. “The evolution was going to be steady. Sure, it’s neat, it’s the future, but it’s not really essential for conditions now.”


But once Apple introduced a 64-bit processor, all the other phone-makers wanted one too. “Apple kicked everybody in the balls with this. It’s being downplayed, but it set off panic in the industry.”


Qualcomm just showed off their 64-bit version of the Snapdragon processor and claims it will get it into smartphones sometime in the second half of 2014, making it nearly one year behind Apple's A7 which made it into the iPhone 5s.

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Qualcomm Employee: Apple's 64-Bit A7 Chip 'Set Off Panic' In the Industry



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Comments (13)
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Johnny Cage
Johnny Cage - December 17, 2013 at 11:36pm
I don't know the technical crap but, I do know my 5s is fast as heck.
radfan957
radfan957 - December 17, 2013 at 3:30pm
It's a gimmick just like megapixels.
gamerscul9870
gamerscul9870 - December 18, 2013 at 2:33am
Your comment is a gimmick as if you try to make sense.
Big Woop
Big Woop - December 17, 2013 at 3:03pm
Awesome. Apple made something no one else did but only puts it in their proprietary devices. #useless
Great
Great - December 17, 2013 at 8:00am
Speak for yourself. If you think 64 bit is only beneficial with 4 gb of ram then you are the stupid one.
bob dupa
bob dupa - December 17, 2013 at 5:00am
yeah right so why not 256bit whata dumbases
Great
Great - December 17, 2013 at 2:18am
Apple will release their quad core 64 bit processor that will be faster than the 8 cores of others.
gamerscul9870
gamerscul9870 - December 17, 2013 at 2:42am
Idea or for real?
gamerscul9870
gamerscul9870 - December 17, 2013 at 1:41am
Just another opinion about jealously qualcomm is with the best tech maker, grow up!
1
Shawn
Shawn - December 17, 2013 at 12:25am
The "there is no more performance" on 64bit is just ignorant. 64bit have been around since 1990 on RISC platform and we didn't have 4 gig memory back then. Benchmarks with programs compiled with 32bit/64bit on iOS7 shows about 30% improvement going to 64bit. The "no performance" is a X86 problem because they use extensions instead of real 64bit. Real 64bit chips have full 32bit and 64bit instructions. X86 have 32bit + 64bit extensions. Thats why X86 3% slower and real 64bit 20-30% faster. Oh,,, And both Qualcomm and Samsung are rushing out 64bit ARMs. Notice how they are standard ARMs not custom like Apples. Isn't it strange how a dual core A7 1.3ghz can match a quod core 2.33ghz KRAIT? But this is whats great about ARM. We have a bunch of companies making custom design. Thats why we see 100% performance increase each year. Compare that to X86 that have had 120% since 2006 on desktops. (AppleARM 4000% since 2007)
Juju
Juju - December 17, 2013 at 1:25am
Well explained!
Bugged Out
Bugged Out - December 17, 2013 at 12:22am
Uh, what happened to the Qualcomm exec? "as reassigned" doesn't compute. Resigned? Reassigned?
mateen
mateen - December 17, 2013 at 12:35am
Typo! Sorry, fixed.
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