Apple’s iPhone 5S breaks new ground with the first 64-bit processor in a mobile device, the A7 system-on-chip. The company focused on the A7’s superior performance and speed in its announcement yesterday, but the 64-bit chip could be an important strategic investment with benefits that extend beyond the 5S.
The 64-bit processor will help enable security for this and future ‘iDevices.’ That’s an important goal for Apple as it works to address the corporate market. Three decades ago the company watched as the Macintosh computer failed to win over corporate buyers despite its popularity with consumers, a fate the company does not want for its mobile devices.
The fingerprint sensor that replaces the password on the iPhone 5S stores encrypted fingerprint information in the A7 CPU. This is an important part of Apple’s security solution. By not sending the information to iCloud or to any third parties, it offers a high level of protection that should appeal to enterprises.
While enterprise customers may not be big purchasers of the iPhone right now, corporate IT departments are seeing large numbers of iPhones in the workplace as employees bring in personal devices and try to connect them to the corporate network. The BYOD trend can increase efficiency but of course it can also compromise security if not managed properly. Apple is trying to make it easier for companies to welcome the iPhone onto their networks.
Apple, of course, is also a PC maker, and although the PC market is shrinking as tablets take off, personal computers are expected to outsell tablets for the next couple of years. An operating system that truly translates from mobile devices to personal computers is facilitated by a processor architecture that can power both types of devices. Intel hopes to corner this market, but now it appears that the chip giant may not be able to count Apple as a customer. With its 64-bit ARM-based processor, Apple could someday make ARM-based personal computers.
“The Apple A7 is the first processor of any type to implement the new 64-bit ARMv8 instruction set,” said analyst Linley Gwennap, publisher of The Microprocessor Report. “ARM’s own 64-bit designs, the Cortex-A53 and
Cortex-A57, are not scheduled for production until 2H14, giving Apple a big head start in developing and deploying 64-bit ARM applications.”
(Image courtesy of bandwidthblog.com)
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