Surprise! Qualcomm Launches 64-bit Processors Just Like Apple

Apple-A7

With the release of the new iPhone 5S back in September, Apple introduced its new A7 chip, the world’s first 64-bit mobile chip.

Just a few months after former Qualcomm executive, Anand Chandrasekher made negative comments about Apple’s 64-bit A7 chip, Qualcomm has announced they will be making the move to 64-bit. Qualcomm will be using an industry event in Hong Kong to introduce a new set of chips that will be targeted toward sub-$150 devices.

The new chips have a lot of new features, most notably, they will be “64-bit capable.” The main reason we see a jump, in computers, from 32-bit to 64-bit is it allows an application to use more memory. The memory limit for a 32-bit application is 4GB, which is still higher than any amount of memory on a smartphone or tablet today. When you make the jump to 64-bit, the memory limit is 16 billion gigabytes.

Apple has moved to 64-bit mobile chips and Qualcomm has also opted to follow. The industry is on a quick transition to moving mobile chips to 64-bit and it won’t be long before we see all the major manufactures of smartphones and tablets switch to 64-bit.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Michelle Leyden Li, senior director of marketing at Qualcomm said:

“It’s a chicken-and-egg situation. We want to be there with partners to help with that transition.”

Apple designs its own chips but they’re a major purchaser of communication chips from Qualcomm. Shortly after Chandrasekher made his negative comment, his company formally retracted the comment. If they didn’t they would have risked the partnership they have with Apple.

Intel has had 64-bit chips for PCs and other products for a long time now, rivals like Nvidia are expected to introduce 64-bit mobile chips in 2014.

[via Qualcomm]

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