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Qualcomm Backs Off 'Marketing Gimmick' Comments About the A7's 64-Bit Benefits
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Anand Chandrasekher is an idiot for saying such a thing (and should be fired), especially since Qualcomm is working on such product, but he's not entirely wrong. One of top 2 benefit of 64-bit for the masses is ability to address more than 4GB of RAM. I would like to see Qualcomm's marketing spin when it announces 64-bit mobile CPU of its own.
They're going back to the previous article and feverishly editing their comments.
Yep hilarious
I think you're all missing the point. Sure, this guy sounds stupid to you and me, but we represent a negligible portion of the market. The 99.99% of people who have no idea what a microprocessor does heard "marketing gimmick" and many of them believe it. Yes, even now, and they will months from now. A footnote correcting his statement won't be heard. He got what he wanted.
Its been a while but when I hear 64bit I think addressing space and instructions. I was in school a little after the time most pcs were moving from 32 to 64bit. While 64 has more addressing space it also often has more advanced instructions. So this can be good for some processes and bad for others? I could be totally off but my understanding is that there can be more overhead in 64bit since the blocks are larger and often there are more advanced instruction sets means longer processing time for simple tasks.
exactly. seems all too common that marketing people with little to no technical experience speak out. if anything this just makes him look like a fool that has no idea what he is actually talking about. i wonder why they bother keeping him..oh wait, cuz he is an executive. -_-
After a call from Cook to that company's CEO Mr.Anand Chandrasekher got pulled into the executive office and slapped!
I'm really surprised this guy has a job. If he is the face of Qualcomm's marketing, and publicly makes incorrect and disparaging remarks about 64-bit processors, he shouldn't be working there anymore. Marketers need to know not just about their own products, but also about the underlying technologies. This guy obviously doesn't.
Lol
Making fun of the 64 bit chip yet it beat the quad core chips from the top smartphones on the market in benchmarks.
Making fun of the 64 bit chip yet it beat the quad core chips from the top smartphones on the market in benchmarks.
Most people are missing the point here.
If there is anyone more worried than Apple about NOT making this look like a marketing gimmick, it is Qualcomm. They sell those chips, for christ sakes, and they want to sell more of them! What else did you expect them to say?
Of course, there IS a technical reason to move to 64bit in mobile devices. I think Apple has done it in part because ARM8 is more power efficient (and in case you didn't know, that's a big deal for computing devices), and ARM8 is 64bit only. That's one good reason. AND in ADDITION, it is a really good marketing gimmick because most people won't notice that the 64bits themselves are not providing any benefit whatsoever. They just think OMG 64BIT MY PHONE IS MORE FUTUREPROOF, not realizing THAT's a marketing gimmick, and not realizing the real benefit.
So there, two sides to the coin.
If there is anyone more worried than Apple about NOT making this look like a marketing gimmick, it is Qualcomm. They sell those chips, for christ sakes, and they want to sell more of them! What else did you expect them to say?
Of course, there IS a technical reason to move to 64bit in mobile devices. I think Apple has done it in part because ARM8 is more power efficient (and in case you didn't know, that's a big deal for computing devices), and ARM8 is 64bit only. That's one good reason. AND in ADDITION, it is a really good marketing gimmick because most people won't notice that the 64bits themselves are not providing any benefit whatsoever. They just think OMG 64BIT MY PHONE IS MORE FUTUREPROOF, not realizing THAT's a marketing gimmick, and not realizing the real benefit.
So there, two sides to the coin.
It is correct that some applications which rely on pointer-heavy data structures can see performance degradation. As to your second claims - more advanced instruction set means faster processing times. The A64 instructions set has more registers (which means more local variables can be kept on the CPU, avoiding the very expensive store/load operations), wider SIMD operations (which usually means faster math operations) and some specialised instructions which can improve certain algorithms. Creating instructions which make code be executed slower is a pretty dumb thing, so CPU designers don't do it anymore
BTW, the execution speed of floating-point instructions via the SSE instruction set is MUCH faster then what the old x87 can do, and SSE can operate on multiple values at the same time.
This is quite a hilarious response from Qualcomm.
EVERYTHING is a marketing gimmick. The everyday consumer can't tell if it's 32, 64 or 1024 bit. If it's "new", if it's "fast" - they'll want it.
Unless you're a tech person, these technical specs are only there to create demand. Johnny will see the marketing and go "Ooh 64 doubles 32! Must be twice as fast!" while he plunks down the cash at Apple Store.
Which is why Retina display is such a marketing masterstroke. The public doesn't know what PPI is. I'm guessing most of them don't realize what resolution means in computing terms. But once you make it a tangible trademark, simplify its meaning (clear picture) and repeat ad nauseum in campaigns: you rake the $ in.
EVERYTHING is a marketing gimmick. The everyday consumer can't tell if it's 32, 64 or 1024 bit. If it's "new", if it's "fast" - they'll want it.
Unless you're a tech person, these technical specs are only there to create demand. Johnny will see the marketing and go "Ooh 64 doubles 32! Must be twice as fast!" while he plunks down the cash at Apple Store.
Which is why Retina display is such a marketing masterstroke. The public doesn't know what PPI is. I'm guessing most of them don't realize what resolution means in computing terms. But once you make it a tangible trademark, simplify its meaning (clear picture) and repeat ad nauseum in campaigns: you rake the $ in.
It is correct that some applications which rely on pointer-heavy data structures can see performance degradation. As to your second claims - more advanced instruction set means faster processing times. The A64 instructions set has more registers (which means more local variables can be kept on the CPU, avoiding the very expensive store/load operations), wider SIMD operations (which usually means faster math operations) and some specialised instructions which can improve certain algorithms. Creating instructions which make code be executed slower is a pretty dumb thing, so CPU designers don't do it anymore
Seems you know your stuff and thanks for the clarification (macrumors forum saves the day again!
). It had been a long while since I took a very basic course which just touched on the matter so its good to have some updated information.
Absolutely true. The CEO probably wanted to discredit ARM so he says it's a gimmick. Then he needs to backtrack after realizing they'll be going x64 soon too LOL.
You are making the assumption that people actually heard him, he is not Tom Cruise or Justin Timberlake or even Donald Trump, he's just a geek in a suit that's two sizes too big, how many people listen to him?
If it wasn't for this site I would have never even heard of the guy.
Seems you know your stuff and thanks for the clarification (macrumors forum saves the day again!
I used to do a lot of assembler coding when I was a kid, chasing those nanoseconds is fun! I forgot most of this stuff now, but some things still stick
This statement was about as dumb as the most recent statement by Google's Schmidt about Android's being more secure than iPhones. Seriously! However, Qualcomm has enough sense to correct that misstatement, Schmidt being the moron he is won't.
