Samsung backs Apple's 64-bit chip smartphone chip switch

[LosOjos]

I'm disappointed. I really hoped the 64-bit "shift" would be exposed for the pointless gimmick it is (at the moment at least).

 

BBC News - Samsung backs Apple's 64-bit chip smartphone chip switch

[glennda]

From what I understand from looking around the main reason to go x64 isn't for the additional ram which everybody (including myself) took the mick out of.

 

It is to enable stronger more complex algorithms for encryption to be adopted, which just isn't available in 32bit procs. 99% of app writers are still going to be writing 32 bit apps for the device as there just isn't the need to go x64 (yet) unless the encryption is required.

[Arthur]

64-bit SoC's are not a gimmick...

 

Why Apple's 64-bit iPhone chip is a bigger deal than you think « The Verge

 

The ability to access more RAM will definitely be necessary in the future, but it's ARMv8's 64-bit architecture that'll start paying off immediately. Extra registers — tiny units of storage inside the processor — let the A7 crunch numbers more efficiently, improving performance significantly for tasks like encoding and decoding video. Thanks in part to this, but mainly to its increased core count, higher clock speed, and improved GPU, the new iPhone 5s will likely fly through iOS apps with an aplomb never seen before. The only negatives to the switch are that 64-bit applications are almost always larger than their 32-bit cousins, and in most cases will use slightly more memory.