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Apple is calling the iPhone 5S its most forward-looking design yet, and it's not kidding - the A7 processor at the heart of the new device is the world's first 64-bit smartphone CPU. Apple has evolved mobile architecture in a new direction, beating ARM's own 64-bit designs to the market in the process. On top of this potentially revolutionary advancement, it is promising the now customary 2x boost to both CPU and GPU power.The move to 64-bit processing undoubtedly boosts performance, especially with the news that iOS 7 itself is compiled around the new architecture in its 5S form. However, in itself, it can in no way account for such a marked speed increase over the existing A6 tech. Indeed, the implementation of 64-bit processing at this stage seems rather odd as we can safely assume that the new phone features well under 4GB of RAM - the threshold at which 64-bit addressing actually starts to make sense. To account for the boost in power, we need to look towards another key stat revealed in yesterday's presentation - the fact that the new A7 features over a billion transistors, double that of its predecessor. This may lend some weight to the notion that the A7 features a quad-core CPU configuration - though the lack of any mention of such an obvious marketing point in the presentation perhaps suggests not.
So long iPhone 5. The arrival of the 5S sees its predecessor cease production, replaced by the polycarbonate 5C, available in five different colours.
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