As Apple’s iPhone 5S event approaches, some new details about the new device’s internals are emerging. Clayton Morris has claimed on Twitter that the iPhone 5S’s A7 processor is “running at about 31% faster” than the iPhone 5’s A6 chip. The iPhone 5’s A6 chip is dual-core, and it seems like the iPhone 5S will also remain dual-core.
However, there could be a major differentiator: 64-bit. We’ve independently heard claims that some of the iPhone 5S internal prototypes include 64-bit processors.
It’s unclear if 64-bit will make the cut, but it’s been in testing. We’re told that the 64-bit processing will assist the A7 chip in making animations, transparencies, and other iOS 7 graphical effects appear much more smoothly than on existing iOS Devices…
It’s likely that the upcoming fifth-generation iPad will gain the same chip, if not a more advanced one to support the additional pixels.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, in a recent note, said that it seems like a transition to 64-bit processors will likely occur in the near-future. If the move does not happen this year with the A7, expect it to happen with the A8, he said. It’s possible that Apple could even be testing 64-bit chips right now in iPhone 5/5S bodies ahead of the 2014 iOS Device processor upgrade.
Morris has also tweeted that the iPhone 5S will include a new dedicated chip for motion tracking. He speculates that this will play into a camera upgrade. We previously reported that the iPhone 5S could include major camera software changes, including a new slow-motion mode that captures 120 FPS video.
Besides a new processor and camera, the iPhone 5S will likely include a fingerprint sensor. We’ve heard that the sensors in testing aren’t exactly activated by a swipe (like on the Motorola Atrix), but the user will hold down on the Home button to be authenticated into the phone. We’re also consistently hearing that payments integration for the fingerprint scanner is a long-term goal, but not something happening this year. As a source said, “think of the passcode-replacing fingerprint scanner as a beta test for future features.”
We’ve also been told to expect the upcoming plastic iPhone to “essentially be an iPhone 5 with a plastic shell.” That is, the same or very similar internal specs to the iPhone 5, but with the long-rumored (and much-leaked), plastic casings. Ming Chi-Kuo and CurrentEditorials say that this will likely result in the iPhone 5 (as we currently know it) to be discontinued.
Also in the cards for the iPhone 5S is a gold color option and perhaps 128GB of storage.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
lets hope it comes soon.
Better Battery!!! please apple please
Come on – 64-bit processing will make animations smoother??? Do you even think about what you’re saying? Having a 64-bit processor makes sense for a single reason – so Apple can simply make iOS 10 (or whichever version will drop support for iPhone 5) 64-bit and there will be a 64-bit capable CPU in all supported phones (e.g. starting with iPhone 5S), without having a transition period during which they have to support both 32 and 64 bit OSes. We still have to wait a bit until the phones have to address more than 4GB of RAM, and it makes sense to go 64-bit.
I’m hoping that the 5S doubles the storage at all price points. Everyone I know is running out of room and seriously that’s about all I can see in the 5S that would justify anyone from upgrading.
I have seen the percents before, sometimes you just cannot feel it, but ofc. the new IOS 7 should include some speed increase.
I also wonder, how they’re still just testing?
A Gamechanger for all Photo Apps.
If you hold down on the home button to authenticate, then how does one activate Siri now? Is it always on and you activate it by speaking or would there be another method? Will be interesting to see how that works.
Fingerprint sensor would just require you to put your finger on the button – not press down.
Next A7 series, 28nm ARMv7 dual core, using 28nm process, they can get 20-30% sleep up at same power consumption even need some optimization.
If they use 28nm ARMv8 bitLITTLE core on A7 and use in iPhone ? It is kind technical nonsense. more ever, iOS is not ready for 64bit HOST. yes, they can run 32bit hist with 32 bit guest software, in this case, they can improve 20-30% of performance when they optimize iOS7 with ARMv8 and guest software at same time or just 5-15% gain depend on the code.
Anyone know why no ARMv8 core for mobile in the market yet ?
I’m taking all these rumors with a grain of salt but I do hope at least some of these rumors are true. I know the only thing that matters to Wall Street are big displays and market share, but it would be nice if Apple does provide a decently working fingerprint sensor and the extra speed with slightly better battery life than past processors.
Nah, Wall Street only cares about future profitability compared to the rest of the economy. Market share and display size are irrelevant to Wall Street.
More cores are nice, but nothing beats good old CPU performance. Doubling your core count isn’t nearly as potent as doubling your CPU performance, as cores are only useful when there are active threads to run on them. And each core is a power-hungry beast.
As for bit size, same rule applies. 64-bit smells better than 32-bit, but the short story is that 64 bit basically consumes twice the RAM. Use 64 bit when you’re working with data that can really be optimized for 64-bit. Otherwise, stick with 32.
apples going to give the finger to the 5 inch 1080p smart phones with there new 4 inch 120hz iphone
It would not only record and play 120 fps video but have there OS running at 120 fps
iOS 7 isn’t compiled for 64-bits. iOS 8? Maybe…
There is only one reason to need 64bit on a phone and that’s 4Gb of RAM and higher.
If you are talking about 64 bit pointers, then yes; however, there are many other things the term 64-bit OS or processor can mean.
mhkobe is right, ARMv8 has four kinds of the avantage, 1. wider memory address, it is good for the large memory device, but, it is not applicable for mobile device yet, this point, Christopher, you are right. 2. additional 128bit registers, it can help to int32 calucation, and lower latenecy clock to handling SP/DP floating point. for the heavy calucation software. 3. Addtional functionos such as Advanced SIMD for DP floating point calcualtion, we expect it will help to increase FP performance. 4. in RISC processor, the wider instruction words can have more detail sub instructions. it will help to increase the performance with the highly optimized compiler.
Anyway, there are many of advantages even I didn’t descripted.
in Archtecture, Apple’s SWIFT processor(A6) has more stages, decorder and execute units than the general Cortex-A9 processor, and it shows around 30-40% of performance gain. It looks like in between Cortex-A9 and Cortex-A15. Cortex-A15 has recommened with 28nm, and Cortex-A9 with 32nm. Apple A6 processor has designed with 32nm process.
We expected A7 processor will be designed with Cortex-A15 with some improvements such as smaller stages similar with SWIFT and minor clock speed improvements, and more number of execution units to increase the performance, and, it will have 20-30% of performance via Similar Cortex-A15 cores such as SanpDragon 800 or latest Samsung Exynos.
Apple can make a customized processor base on ARMv8/Cortex-5x, but, only question is, it will be needed now even there are many of technical issues. Even iOS 7 is not ready yet (to get the full advantage of the new core),
It is why I am thinking, it is not yet.
But, I know that many people want to see something advanced than their competitor, but, I feel, Apple has became more and more conservative.
I think they are starting all these rumors to show that they are innovating? So I would take them with a pinch of salt.
iPhone 6 in the lab already, iPhone 5S already made we just don’t know official info about it (remember double down on security), it’ll be out in a month, just like last sept.
iPhone 6-Big screen big processor big ram big memory big battery big components
Wake me up this time next year
So unless the new iPhones come with more than 4GB of RAM – what is the point of a 64bit CPU?
Nice, but I am waiting for larger screen before upgrading my iP5.
A confusing article. ARM 64-bit chips are NOT called A7, but A7 is the internal name that Apple uses to denote a generation of its own ARM SoC. The ARM v8 ISA (instruction set architecture) is brand new, and not yet in commercial use (I think- maybe there are some early server parts). Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm and others are currently developing parts based on this new ARM design.
Now the speed boost does NOT come form apps now using 64-bit code, or extended memory address space. That may happen in the future. No, the speed boost comes from the new ARM architecture that implements the 64-bit ISA. You know, like how Intel’s Haswell parts are much faster than their old Core2 parts, even though they run the same code.
Even articles here should NOT refer to A7 unless it is made clear this is an internal Apple designation. A8, A9, A7, A15 are all official ARM designations of designs based on ARMV7 ISA, commonly know collectively as ‘cortex’.
A57/A53 are the big/little 64-bit ARM designations for the 64-bit ARMv8 designs. Companies like Apple buy the right to do some custom modification on these ARM designs, and to refer to them in more generic terms (ARM 64-bit).
It gets more confusing still when you learn that ARM takes the lessons it learns from v8 parts, and uses it to produce more efficient v7 parts like the A12 that kinda replaces the A15 before the A15 has really got established. For mobile devices, what matters is that ARM 64-bit parts are more efficient in OLD v7 mode than the v7 parts they also replace. You wouldn’t want people writing v8 64-bit apps anyway, because they wouldn’t have backward compatibility with older devices.
R.I.P Steve Jobs … Wish you were still alive to see … we miss you!
Let’s see what it brings.
A new step of the apple. I will wait