ARM executive: 64-bit phones coming by Christmas

Tom Lantzsch, ARM's executive vice president of corporate strategy spoke to CNET and shared that the company has had a noticeable increase in interest for 64-bit mobile processors. More specifically, the 64-bit Cortex-A53 has received a lot of attention from device makers.

The interest was so high in fact, that it came as a surprise to ARM's executives in the chip design department. The leaders of the companydidn't believe a 64-bit ARM processor would be needed outside corporate server environments in the first stages of rollout.

"We've been surprised at the pace that 64-bit is now becoming mobile centric. Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Marvell are examples of public 64-bit disclosures. Even existing 32-bit code will run more efficiently on [ARM's 64-bit] v8-A architecture than on native 32-bit ARM architecture" he added.

Lantzsch believes ARM and its partners will be ready to launch 64-bit CPUs by Christmas, although that's as specific as he got. He notes that when 64-bit software gets released, products could change for the better.

Ever since Apple announced its 64-bit Apple A7 chip, device manufacturers and chip makers are in a rush to push 64-bit processors of their own as a response. A while ago, it was confirmed that a 64-bit Exynos CPU is in the works, but that's yet to be become official, too.

Source