Apple is the first to launch a 64-bit ARM chip!
Today there was a presentation on which Apple introduced the iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C and the release of iOS 7 .
And few have noticed that the world's first 64-bit ARM chip, the Apple A7 , was introduced today!
Many are wondering - why did you need to develop a 64-bit chip for the iPhone 5S? And of course, today such a powerful chip is also not needed by smartphones, but this is an obvious foundation for the future, because:
* First: the development of real 64-bit software is not a quick deal - see the article “64 bits” ;
* And secondly: at the very presentation, Apple itself declares that the 64-bit chip is a Desktop-class architecture ! - see photos of the presentation, for example, here: “Make the day brighter”: the September broadcast was “in a hurry” in Cupertino!
And from this we can conclude that the 64-bit Apple A7 chips in the future, perhaps in a slightly revised form, using a new process technology and with increased frequency, can be used by Apple not only in smartphones, but also in laptops, and in desktops, and even in microservers.
And with this, Apple clearly demonstrates that they are seriously and for a long time engaged in the development of processors, and it is possible that processor building becomes one of the key pillars of the entire Apple business (thus they become indirect competitors to such giants as NVidia, AMD, and even Intel).
A bit of history:
* The 64-bit ARM v8 architecture itself is very young - it was developed by ARM Limited since 2008 and officially appeared only in 2011 (~ 2 years ago).
* In November 2011, AppliedMicro was the first to demonstrate the ARM 64-bit processor core in silicon, which was implemented by means of a programmable gate array (FPGA) - see: “AppliedMicro: the world's first processor on the 64-bit ARM v8 core” .
* And from 2011 to this day, Applied Micro Circuits demonstrated the first prototypes of the X-Gene 64-bit ARM chip, trying to attract software developers to start creating native software for the 64-bit ARM architecture - see: “Developers Red Hat, Xen, Java, Cloudera are eyeing 64-bit processors in the ARM architecture . ”
* Applied Micro Circuits actively advertises its 64-bit ARM X-Gene chip designed for microservers, but was going to start commercial production of these chips only by the beginning of 2014 (they stated that they would do it first - a bummer on their head) - see .: "HOME -> PRODUCTS -> X-GENE . "
* NVidia introduced Project Denver in 2012 - a proprietary 64-bit processor compatible with the ARMv7 / v8 instruction set, designed for use in PCs and servers - to be released in 2014 - see: “About the powerful ARM processor NVIDIA Project Boulder .
* Oh, and you can still remember that ARM Limited itself introduced its standard 64-bit kernels Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 only in October 2012 - see: “ARM introduced the 64-bit kernels: we meet Cortex-A53 and Cortex- A57 . In fact, many companies are going to start manufacturing processors with these cores, but not earlier than in 2014-2015.
')
I enumerated all this, trying to show that, firstly, Apple independently developed its own 64-bit processor core compatible with the ARMv7 / v8 instruction set - and brought it to industrial production (and it takes about 2 to 3 years) and did it faster than such chipbuilding professionals like Applied Micro Circuits and NVidia.
And today, Apple proved that they have not just a small department of several employees engaged in chip building, but a whole huge team (a separate company, one might say) consisting of several hundred engineers, ready to compete on equal terms with Applied Micro Circuits, NVidia, and maybe even with AMD, and even with Intel.
- And this is a very serious bid - the competitors listed above should obviously strain!
What do you think about that?
And few have noticed that the world's first 64-bit ARM chip, the Apple A7 , was introduced today!
Many are wondering - why did you need to develop a 64-bit chip for the iPhone 5S? And of course, today such a powerful chip is also not needed by smartphones, but this is an obvious foundation for the future, because:
* First: the development of real 64-bit software is not a quick deal - see the article “64 bits” ;
* And secondly: at the very presentation, Apple itself declares that the 64-bit chip is a Desktop-class architecture ! - see photos of the presentation, for example, here: “Make the day brighter”: the September broadcast was “in a hurry” in Cupertino!
And from this we can conclude that the 64-bit Apple A7 chips in the future, perhaps in a slightly revised form, using a new process technology and with increased frequency, can be used by Apple not only in smartphones, but also in laptops, and in desktops, and even in microservers.
And with this, Apple clearly demonstrates that they are seriously and for a long time engaged in the development of processors, and it is possible that processor building becomes one of the key pillars of the entire Apple business (thus they become indirect competitors to such giants as NVidia, AMD, and even Intel).
A bit of history:
* The 64-bit ARM v8 architecture itself is very young - it was developed by ARM Limited since 2008 and officially appeared only in 2011 (~ 2 years ago).
* In November 2011, AppliedMicro was the first to demonstrate the ARM 64-bit processor core in silicon, which was implemented by means of a programmable gate array (FPGA) - see: “AppliedMicro: the world's first processor on the 64-bit ARM v8 core” .
* And from 2011 to this day, Applied Micro Circuits demonstrated the first prototypes of the X-Gene 64-bit ARM chip, trying to attract software developers to start creating native software for the 64-bit ARM architecture - see: “Developers Red Hat, Xen, Java, Cloudera are eyeing 64-bit processors in the ARM architecture . ”
* Applied Micro Circuits actively advertises its 64-bit ARM X-Gene chip designed for microservers, but was going to start commercial production of these chips only by the beginning of 2014 (they stated that they would do it first - a bummer on their head) - see .: "HOME -> PRODUCTS -> X-GENE . "
* NVidia introduced Project Denver in 2012 - a proprietary 64-bit processor compatible with the ARMv7 / v8 instruction set, designed for use in PCs and servers - to be released in 2014 - see: “About the powerful ARM processor NVIDIA Project Boulder .
* Oh, and you can still remember that ARM Limited itself introduced its standard 64-bit kernels Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 only in October 2012 - see: “ARM introduced the 64-bit kernels: we meet Cortex-A53 and Cortex- A57 . In fact, many companies are going to start manufacturing processors with these cores, but not earlier than in 2014-2015.
')
I enumerated all this, trying to show that, firstly, Apple independently developed its own 64-bit processor core compatible with the ARMv7 / v8 instruction set - and brought it to industrial production (and it takes about 2 to 3 years) and did it faster than such chipbuilding professionals like Applied Micro Circuits and NVidia.
And today, Apple proved that they have not just a small department of several employees engaged in chip building, but a whole huge team (a separate company, one might say) consisting of several hundred engineers, ready to compete on equal terms with Applied Micro Circuits, NVidia, and maybe even with AMD, and even with Intel.
- And this is a very serious bid - the competitors listed above should obviously strain!
What do you think about that?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/193278/
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