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Am sure Apple will make it (if they do it at all) funcional and useful and not like Samsung for one of lifetime use (just like their ad where the persons eats ribs and wants to respond a call). If people dont use it like the windows tablets 5 years ago, then its like it never existed. The true innovation is when you make a technology useful for the user. If its not useful, its just technology, not innovation. After the maps app fiasco, Apple will be rly careful before releasing a new tech, hardware or software.

I can see it. I just don't have much use for motion technology for something that is normally in my hands all the time (I love wings, but I don't eat them and use my phone that much :D )
 
This isn't about memory isolation nor about swap. This is about virtual memory, not Windows virtual memory, but UNIX virtual memory. Go read up on the difference and how it works. Stop thinking about things in terms of Windows when discussing iOS.

I'm not talking about things in terms of any OS in particular. From the perspective of an embedded systems architect I'm thinking in terms of the processor itself. Seriously, what capabilities or performance benefit does a larger memory space get you when all of your physical RAM and a good portion of your filesystem can already be mapped into a single process address space? It's not like most iOS devices have a ton of memory mapped I/O. The MMU works the way the MMU works, and what it can do really doesn't work any differently if you're talking about the Windows kernel or a UNIX/OS X/OS of the week kernel.

What you were describing earlier was memory isolation via process address space mapping. 32 bit processors do it now, and they're pretty good at it. Moving to 64-bit processors isn't going to help them do it any better. If I can cover all my physical address space with 4G of address range and I can remap each process to it's own range (with plenty of dead space to spare) what do I get?
 
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I thought Intel and AMD had figured out years ago (at least with desktop processors) that, even though the nano architectures would continue to shrink as the technologies advanced, there was an effective speed limit of around 3-4 GHz when it came to single core processors. Anything faster would be difficult to mass produce with acceptable yields and would run way too hot anyway. They, therefore, "told" Apple, HP, Dell, and the like to design software for multiple cores as a viable means of increasing efficiency and speed. I'd assumed that thinking had been adopted for mobile processors (including ARM) as well. I'm I off base?

Yes.

My point was more that there is a mistaken notion that more cores means it will work a certain amount better. A dual to quad will mean twice as fast, for example. What they don't realize is that it doesn't work like that. The quad core might not even be much faster, if any, if the software only uses dual cores. That is why I say people are obsessed with numbers.

I'm admitting that petty first world advertising has spoiled me into want 2x as fast.

I won't base anything on the new processor, I doubt I'll upgrade because it makes me feel too frivolous since I have a functioning iPhone.

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It's not a standard, just a feature I was expecting. And I doubt I'll upgrade because I have a working phone and it makes me feel unappreciative.



I like it! I am quite moved indeed. ;)

And this might have a 2x as fast GPU for your number pleasure. :p
 
64 bit is unlikely because ARM hasn't released their own 64 bit chips yet. I doubt apple will try to leapfrog them. 64 bit also introduces compatibility problems when there is no major need for it.

31% is almost unnoticeable.
 
For me it would not be about locking and unlocking.
Each time an App would ask for a password, you could simply touch the sensor to authenticate.

No fiddling with AppStore passwords, web site logins and so forth.

Not only that but it would be very useful in retail and making online purchases.
 
64 bit is unlikely because ARM hasn't released their own 64 bit chips yet. I doubt apple will try to leapfrog them. 64 bit also introduces compatibility problems when there is no major need for it.

31% is almost unnoticeable.

I believe Apple will certainly try to leapfrog ARM whenever possible and practical. They have the license to modify the architecture and spent hundreds of millions to build up a team dedicated for that purpose. Also Apple controls their own development tools and thus they can move ahead quicker (or slower) with the hardware progress as they see fit.

So far I haven't read anything about the GPU side of things and often times that's the more interesting part of Apple's decision with iOS hardware. Has there been any leaks regarding the GPU?
 
POWER VR Series 6 (rogue)

We've been hearing about that for a long time and there have been speculations on Rogue for a while now. However my question was whether there's anything of substance with some evidence or any information on the specifics on the GPU.
 
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+.

While OS X facilitates this, it is primarily a function of the processor and the x86-64 architecture. Not all 64-bit processors can run 32-bit code. ARM AArch64 (the 64-bit ARM architecture) instruction set is dramatically different from the 32-bit instruction set.

Check out this discussion to see notes from the implementors of the linux AArch64 port.

Apple's really good at transitions though. I wouldn't expect major problems with a 64-bit transition (fat binaries?). However, I'm seriously not sure what benefit they would have by going 64-bit right now.
 
Very few users on 2-year contracts will ever upgrade their iPhone every year.
Small matter of an early termination fee.

So, in practice, iPhone owners upgrade every 2 years.
iPhone 5 was vastly better in every way than the iPhone 4.
Same will be true for the iPhone 5S in comparison to the iPhone 4S.

We have no such thing here in Canada. Our terms are three years, with no early termination fee. We simply buy out the remaining cost of the subsidized phone.

When I went from iPhone 4 to 5, I paid $180, plus $200 to buyout my phone. I sold my phone for $360. Ultimately, I paid $20 to upgrade a two year old phone. If I originally had the iPhone 4S, I would have had to pay more to buyout, but recovered the cost with the higher resale value. So upgrading is essentially free. $20 to have a new phone for a year (until the next version is released)? Sounds fine to me.

Barring some ridiculously high cost for this new iPhone, upgrading after only a year is a no brainer. Sure, I am extending my contract for a year, but that means nothing. Here, there is no way to pay a lower monthly fee if I own the phone straight up, so the is no benefit to not having a contract.


As for the topic of this thread, I hope the new iPad also gets the A7 (or A7X).
 
A good place to start would be a quick poll on what percent of people actually password protect their phone and would benefit from a 'faster' finger scan.

Also, bleeding market share to larger screen devices would be a good indicator, too.

Whatever they add, I just hope it's not visible in the digitizer.

Every single person I know has password. Except me, I hate to type codes just to unlock my phone.

And if security was painless, more people would do it.
Most people wouldn't buy insurance if it wasn't required in most activities.

Apple has made a 'no' decision to focus on portability and discrete 4, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15 inch sizing for mobile, assuming that those are the critical few for sweet spots. Yes, you'll get closer to 100% coverage if you fill in all the gaps, but that's SKU drift that Apple doesn't want to excurse into.

Now... a 'no password' security system (first fingerprint, then true voice/facial recognition (linking voice/face and movement) is painless security (except in below zero climates like MN, where a bellaclava and gloves may make it problematic ;-). And that is critical in moving to a new economic system that is both cashless, and signatureless:

Something you have (a device)
Something you are (your face, voice, fingerprint)
Something you know (the final, vs the first level of security... the secret).

For 50 years, passwords have been the first level vs the last (typically, security is 'where you are', 'who you are', 'what you know [secret phrase]'. We can get back to that, starting with fingerprint (requiring a warm, pulsing finger, not a picture of a fingerprint, but a 3D and multi-layer (surface, subsurface, and capillary)). Couple that with a few years of being able to get to voice prompting (Please say your name and passphrase), and then a 3d facial recognition (again, defeating paper pics), and we are on our way to a level of 'consumer security' that will greatly reduce the losses that 'ASCII passwords' now expose us to as an 'only form' of online security.
 
31% does matter. Because of all the stuff you (developer) don't do now, because of how 'sluggish' it feels when you try to implement it.

64bit will make it 2-4x faster at moving stuff around (most important, since VM stuff is pretty small value on a limited memory system), AND you can do a lot of things in memory stuff faster (e.g. encryption). And more accurate (where they have been using 32bit because of the bandwidth limitation)


iOS/iDevices leadership in 'response' is a key differentiator. As we move to 'motion detection' and 'facial recognition' and 'voice control' moving from 32 bit to 64 bit is more than 2X as fast in doing compute intensive stuff as you not only calculate and move 2X faster, you also remove a lot of assembly/disassembly of the payload).

We think a 0.1sec delay in screen changes as 'slow' (see amazon's study on that) and show 10% decrease in satisfaction. And that's just page turns for text/pictures.

We need a consistent 0.01-.05sec response to feel 'comfortable' in how a virtual device responds to our actions. I'm old enough to remember pinball machines I'd avoid because the paddles didn't respond accurately.

So... 64Bit is a big thing.

Aah I see. Well, as a simple consumer i don't care ;) I just want a responsive beautiful phone.
 
A good place to start would be a quick poll on what percent of people actually password protect their phone and would benefit from a 'faster' finger scan.

Also, bleeding market share to larger screen devices would be a good indicator, too.

Whatever they add, I just hope it's not visible in the digitizer.

none of this is data that supports fact. Reasons for switching phones can be vast and I would be willing to guess (note that I did not say it is fact) that the #1 driving force is price.
 
When battery technology improves that will be possible.


The 5S will have noticeably better battery life then the 5, more energy efficient processor that is also 31% faster, faster, more efficient GPU....slightly bigger battery, possibly they are going to use IGZO display in the 5S?

Probably no IGZO but i can defitnetly see the 5S getting a few more hours of batterry life in like everything
 
Nowhere in that Tweet the word performance is mentioned. Instead it says the chip is "running at about" and goes onto state a very specific figure, 31%, not 30%, IMHO that's a strong hint that the number refers to the clockspeed not the performance which is much more vague. It'd make a perfect sense if the chip is running at 1.7Ghz, which would mean the chip is indeed running 31% faster clockspeed-wise. Determining the performance of "the whole package deal" is impossible to that accuracy. We're not even sure what kind of benchmark to use here.

You're right, but on the other hand a newer chip running at a 31% higher clock speed can be assumed to be at least 31% faster in performance than the old one, as performance (of the chip itself, at least) tends to roughly scale with clock speed and the newer chip probably won't be slower per clock cycle).
 
You're right, but on the other hand a newer chip running at a 31% higher clock speed can be assumed to be at least 31% faster in performance than the old one, as performance (of the chip itself, at least) tends to roughly scale with clock speed and the newer chip probably won't be slower per clock cycle).

That's the problem I have with the Tweet and this article. We do not know how many cores the chip has, what kind of improvements have/haven't been made to improve the per clock performance, the RAM type used, etc, etc. Without those information, the figure 31% is utterly useless but yet Macrumors and other internet sites took it and ran with the story as if it really showed the new chip will be "31% faster". It's really sad to see the utter lack of basic critical thinking and writing in tech blogs. :( (or just as likely, they don't care as long as they get their clicks and ad revenue)
 
still not better than the sanpdragon S4 pro (LAST YEAR's processor). believe me apple, color options will not save you.
 
still not better than the sanpdragon S4 pro (LAST YEAR's processor). believe me apple, color options will not save you.

Don't matter. ios will run better than any android device on those snapdragons. It's just too well optimized. What matters is if this will be just another boring spec upgrade, or will something new and exciting come forward.
 
Its really time for those sporting the iPhone 4S to upgrade. iPhone 5 will be good for a while longer.

How do you figure? I've been waffling about upgrading my 4S, and I'll make a choice when I see what Apple has in store. That said, the only complaint I have with the device is that some applications that leverage the larger screen size now aren't *as* usable as they could be. Still quite usable though. Until the battery stops taking a charge, there's little reason to upgrade; the thing does everything, and does it well. If I do upgrade, it'll replace my wife's BlackBerry Curve. Probably for at least a couple more years.
 
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?

Uhh, no, not at all.

The iOS kernel is based on the OSX kernel which has already gone through two 32->64 bit transitions, on both big and little-endian hardware. I would imagine there's very little of it that is not wrapped in macros which will automatically compile appropriately. There'll be the usual necessity for some manual intervention for VM and atomics, nothing that hasn't been done before.

The ARM A8 manuals describe how to run existing 32-bit binaries, and it doesn't involve emulation, any more than running 32-bit x86 binaries requires emulation. Finally, Apple is, you know, a SECRETIVE company. If they want to keep this secret until launch, they will not have this into the SDK. After all, it's not necessary right now.

The advantages of going to 64 bit for Apple are
- boasting. (Not technically important, but a way to impress the crowd who are excited by Moto's X8 architecture and Samsung's Octacore)

- allows them to move to >4GB of RAM EASILY and without a period of frustration. Apple has handled pretty much all these transitions well --- because they planned EARLY. MS and the Intel world have NOT handled them well (32->64 bit, various jumps in HD sizes, 4K disk sectors) because they DON'T plan years in advance.

- the sooner they go 64-bit the sooner they can use the A8 architecture. This is the real win, more so than a larger address space. The A8 architecture was ARM's chance to rethink everything they've done over the past ten years or so, improve what works well, and drop what was a bad idea.
 
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