The 64 Bit Question: What Can You do With Apple’s New Processor?

From our sister title, All Things D

When AppleAAPL -1.20% unveiled the iPhone 5s on Tuesday, the company touted as one of its tentpole features the 64-bit desktop-class processing power of its new custom-made A7 chip. “The A7 is up to twice as fast as the previous-generation system at CPU tasks,” Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said. “This is the first-ever 64-bit processor in a phone of any kind. I don’t think the other guys are even talking about it yet.”
According to Schiller, the A7 is “up to twice as fast” in raw processing power and graphics performance than its predecessor, the A6. And when paired with Apple’s forthcoming iOS 7 operating system — which has been designed with native 64-bit kernel, libraries and drivers — it provides unparalleled performance. “The benefits are huge,” Schiller said. “This is a huge leap forward.”
And there’s no question that the benefits of 64-bit are huge. What’s less clear is how ev

ident they’ll be in the iPhone 5s. Because, as innumerable observers have pointed out this week, in order to tap into the biggest performance gains offered by a 64-bit chip, you need a smartphone with more than four gigabytes of RAM. And, while Apple hasn’t said how much RAM it has built into the 5s, it’s highly unlikely that it’s enough to meet that requirement.