The iPhone 5s that was announced just a few short days ago comes with a world’s first, a 64-bit chip. What does that even mean? Do you remember when 64-bit computers came out roughly 10 years ago, powered by the AMD Athlon 64? They were created so that computer makers could build machines that could handle more than 4GB of RAM. Spend any decent money on a computer today, and chances are it’ll come with 8GB of RAM or even more.
So does that mean the iPhone 5s has 4GB of RAM? Not really, but it means that Apple is getting ready for 64-bit whenever it’ll become mainstream, which will happen by this time next year or early 2015. An article that’s floating around today from The Korea Times says Samsung is hard at work on a 64-bit chip for their own smartphones. This should come as no shock to anyone.
In an odd turn of events, it’s Apple who came out with something the world doesn’t really need yet, not Samsung, but again, Apple is just getting ready for the inevitable. By the time Samsung has a 64-bit Exynos and Qualcomm has the Snapdragon 1000 or whatever they end up calling it, Apple will be on their second generation 64-bit chip.
Circling back, this whole 64-bit thing isn’t going to matter for quite a while. When Samsung announces the Galaxy S5 in half a year, it’s not going to have 4GB of RAM. I can promise you that. The Galaxy S6 on the other hand, it’s practically guaranteed.
