What was the real reason Apple went 64-bit? (besides spec sheet bragging rights)

I read that apple said it was needed for the finger print reader. Once they get IOS 64 straightened out apple can start to more easily beef up the hardware.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit_computing#Pros_and_cons

64 bit has advantages without having more than 4GB of RAM. Don't listen to upset android users.

"It's not like the 5s, or any future iPhone for the next decade, uses more than 4gb of RAM"

For the next decade?! How would you know this?

It probably saved a ton on development costs to use the same processor in the 5S, Air, and rMini.

At the 5s product launch, it was the only detail that hadn't leaked. That's why they did it.

This was purely getting a Chess Piece in place IMO. Mobile phones don't need 4GB of RAM today, but 1GB and 2GB are common now, so the 4GB barrier may arrive sooner than we think.

I assume that Apple wants to be ready, and lay the groundwork ahead of time.

Jesus.

Just the registers alone are more than enough reason to go 64 bit, people need to stop thinking of 64 bit as even mainly related to RAM access.

Retired Cat said:

This was purely getting a Chess Piece in place IMO. Mobile phones don't need 4GB of RAM today, but 1GB and 2GB are common now, so the 4GB barrier may arrive sooner than we think.

I assume that Apple wants to be ready, and lay the groundwork ahead of time.

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People were saying the same thing at the jump from 16 bits to 32 bits.

Retired Cat said:

I assume that Apple wants to be ready, and lay the groundwork ahead of time.

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If that's the case it's a shame Apple doesn't have the same attitude with regard to RAM.

I think it was to facilitate a move to 64 bit before it was needed. Apple will have 64 bit processors, iOS and apps installed in a large number of devices before they're necessary.

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KeepCalmPeople said:

If that's the case it's a shame Apple doesn't have the same attitude with regard to RAM.

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More RAM is better, and I understand that some people are having low RAM related issues, but I really haven't run into that problem on my iOS devices.

antiprotest said:

"It's not like the 5s, or any future iPhone for the next decade, uses more than 4gb of RAM"

For the next decade?! How would you know this?

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He's a time traveler like the doctor. Maybe he's a she and she's river song!

People that are not into computers/that don't read Anandtech won't see why 64-bit is a brilliant move on Apple's part.

I'm guessing some advantages could be in the cross-development between Mac OS X and iOS. They're not going to be the same any time soon, if ever. But I'm guessing from my limited programming experience that it might be easier to bring a feature in 64-bit OS X to 64-bit iOS.

mKTank said:

People that are not into computers/that don't read Anandtech won't see why 64-bit is a brilliant move on Apple's part.

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Would be helpful if you could provide link to the specific article on Anandtech.

antiprotest said:

"It's not like the 5s, or any future iPhone for the next decade, uses more than 4gb of RAM"

For the next decade?! How would you know this?

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Obviously he doesn't know. But it's pretty unlikely. Apple still has DESKTOPS selling with 4GB of RAM. They've only ever bumped their total ram spec once. Can we say with absolute certainy that we will go a decade before we see more than 4GB of ram in an iOS device? No. Just like we can't say with certainty that Apple's next release will be a success. But we can make some pretty educated guesses.

mKTank said:

People that are not into computers/that don't read Anandtech won't see why 64-bit is a brilliant move on Apple's part.

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Yup, I totally agree with the Anandtech article. Apple is planning ahead(just like they did with OSX running on Intel processors, long before 10.4.)

gaanee said:

Would be helpful if you could provide link to the specific article on Anandtech.

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https://www.google.ca/search?client...yAHA14DADg#q=anandtech+apple+64+bit+a7&rls=en

The internet isn't too hard to use.

mKTank said:

People that are not into computers/that don't read Anandtech won't see why 64-bit is a brilliant move on Apple's part.

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People like that wouldn't need to, they would just enjoy all that the iOS device they have would have to offer them (because even if they did try to look into it and read about it, they likely wouldn't even get it or care about it anyway, so it really doesn't matter one way or another when it comes to people like that).

the only reason for it is so they could burn extra 15 minutes of 5s presentation and therefore make it sound like it has so much more things than 5. Nothing more.

easy-peasy said:

I've searched online but haven't found a real answer that makes any sense why the 5s would need it

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There will be a 'fusion' (of sorts) of OS X & iOS, so 64-bit architecture is a necessity. The oldest supported iOS devices for this new OS will be an iPhone 5s & late 2013 iPad.

64 bit has memory addressing advantages which will be important down the road.

64 bit has certain speed advantages that pay off right now, particularly since iOS was fully optimized for it before the release date.

And it can't hurt that, for once, even if Apple didn't intend it, they beat Samsung and the other Android manufacturers at their own game by releasing a phone that blew away the spec sheets of the others. No one else was ready for, or expected, a 64-bit mobile CPU in a mainstream smartphone this soon.