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A7 Processor to Be 31% Faster and 64-Bit, iPhone 5S to Support Motion Tracking?

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The next-generation A7 processor in the iPhone 5S will be roughly 31 percent faster than the current A6, according to a tweet by Fox News' Clayton Morris. His sources have also mentioned a "separate chip devoted to motion tracking".

It's unclear how Apple would use motion tracking abilities, but it could be developing a new control scheme that uses motion gestures like Samsung has built into its Galaxy S series of smartphones. A profile of Jony Ive by Bloomberg earlier this year may support this hypothesis:
Longer term, Ive also has shown interest in altering how people control their computers. He has met with makers of gesture technology that lets people navigate their gadgets by moving their hands -- without touching the screen, said a personal familiar with those interactions.
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iphone_5S_chip.jpg
Main A-series chip from prototype iPhone 5S​
Separately, 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman writes that Apple has been testing 64-bit prototypes of the A7 chip, potentially for use in the iPhone 5S.
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 make animations, transparencies, and other iOS 7 graphical effects appear much more smoothly than on existing iOS Devices...
Click to expand...
Last September, semiconductor analyst Linley Gwennap claimed that Apple was working on a 64-bit ARMv8 solution for launch in 2014, and Apple may simply be testing future processor architectures in iPhone 5S prototype units. That report claimed the logical upgrade for the A7 would be a quad-core architecture and continued increases in graphics capabilities.

Previous leaks have shown an A7 chip -- pictured above -- with an Apple model number of APL0698, while the original A6 had a model number of APL0598. The A6X found in the fourth-generation iPad carries an APL5598 model number, demonstrating how Apple varies the first digit for members of a given A-series family and increments the second digit when transitioning to a new family.

The iPhone 5S is expected to be unveiled at a media event on September 10.

Article Link: A7 Processor to Be 31% Faster and 64-Bit, iPhone 5S to Support Motion Tracking?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/08/25/a7-processor-to-be-31-faster-and-64-bit-iphone-5-to-support-motion-tracking/
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,024
7,867
64-bit seems unlikely since it would require a complete re-write of the iOS kernel, and existing 32-bit applications would need to be run in emulation. Wouldn't we have seen some signs in the developer toolkit if it were 64-bit?
 
TheRainKing

TheRainKing

macrumors 6502a
Jun 11, 2012
999
535
Shouldn't the title say 5S to support motion tracking?

EDIT - Never mind it's been corrected!
 
akuma13

akuma13

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2006
928
424
Good news. I guess all those "ios7 is laggy" remarks should not be an issue anymore when the 5S is released.
 
bb426

bb426

macrumors 6502
Jun 7, 2011
421
131
California
Jacquesvw said:
I can see it now... waving my hands around like an orangutan in front of a transparent screen like in Minority Report.
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Lol probably the best visual yet.

I think that this whole motion tracking gimmick on phones has yet to see much of any use that lasts for more than a day.

The best use for this would be for iOS in the car, and gaming.
 
C

cybermax

macrumors newbie
Dec 24, 2012
6
0
The most of people jump on 64bit because They can have more than 4GB of RAM. Other reasons are not so important!
 
P

pmau

macrumors 68000
Nov 9, 2010
1,569
854
Given that reviews of iOS 7 beta mention animation speed as a critical problem, this would be amazing.

Also, remember that Apple did not invent the MP3 player, but greatly improved existing designs. Transfer that to motion tracking and it might be a feature "done the right way".

If this can be used with bluetooth and you can simply put the phone on your desk or living room table to activate stuff on the Apple TV or iTunes, this would be awesome.

Motion sensors don't have to mean you wave at your phone. You are just recognized by the phone. Maybe infrared tracking or similar.
 
P

pmau

macrumors 68000
Nov 9, 2010
1,569
854
cybermax said:
The most of people jump on 64bit because They can have more 4GB of RAM. Other reason are not so important!
Click to expand...

64bit doubles the memory bandwidth and therefore the transfer from and to the GPU. That's a major improvement. It's not about address space, but bandwidth.
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
KPOM said:
64-bit seems unlikely since it would require a complete re-write of the iOS kernel, and existing 32-bit applications would need to be run in emulation. Wouldn't we have seen some signs in the developer toolkit if it were 64-bit?
Click to expand...

Because iOS is based off of Mac OS X, there would be no need for Windows-type 32-bit emulation. Instead an existing 32-bit application would work seamlessly with the OS and kernel, as 32-bit apps work in the 64-bit only Lion+.
 
V

Ventilatedbrain

macrumors regular
Nov 22, 2012
201
68
More power is always welcome .. The 5 is no slouch
.heck my 4s was no slouch ... Im not sure about the motion tracking thing though .. Look how well Samsung did it :/ ..let's wait it out
 
C

chinaboxer

macrumors newbie
Aug 31, 2012
26
0
64-bit unlikely in A7. It's like toy bricks. Apple will add only one brick in one generation to keep you buying their products all the time. If they boost the configuration too much in one generation, there would be less excitement in the next one. Diminishing returns.
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
cybermax said:
The most of people jump on 64bit because They can have more than 4GB of RAM. Other reasons are not so important!
Click to expand...

Even if the new iPhone has only 1GB of ram, there would be massive improvements to iOS' already great memory handling. In a 32-bit UNIX OS, every process needs to share the same 4GB virtual memory address space that is owned by the kernel. In a 64-bit OS, each 64-bit process gets its own 16TB virtual memory address space. While 32-bit processes still have to share the kernel's 4GB virtual address. This leads to much faster processing as 64-bit processes don't need to go through the kernel to process as much information.
 
V

viperGTS

macrumors 68000
Nov 15, 2010
1,560
941
Only 31% faster? I don't know how they determine "2x faster" but this doesn't seem like much of an improvement.
 
S

SilianRail

macrumors 6502
Feb 24, 2011
352
56
They should've just done 64bit on iOS from day 1. Obviously this day would come eventually. Intel and AMD had 64 bit processors in 2003-4.
 
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