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All posts tagged "x86"


Friday, January 15, 2010

The Power Consumption Arms Race is a Close One

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 03:30 PM

http://jkontherun.com/2010/01/15/th...un+(jkOnTheRun)

"Today he observed that on the CPU side of the house, the power difference between ARM and x86 is drastically reduced over what it was. If you’ve been following the progress of Intel’s Atom platform, that’s no surprise. And it doesn’t take an engineering degree to know that larger backlit displays can consume more power that most other device components."

To be honest, I am not sure if there really needs to be a winner when it comes to the battle between ARM and x86. ARM chips are definitely improving in performance, while x86 CPUs have dropped considerably in their power consumption. Both architectures have viable OSes that will work on them from Microsoft, Google or the Linux community, and flexibility does not really matter much with most of the devices are using, as they seem to be quite specialized, or run an application layer, like a web browser. At the end of the day, I cannot imagine the typical consumer really caring anymore since it simply will not matter.

Tags: hardware, arm, x86

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Maximum PC Examines the Legacy of x86

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 09:00 AM

http://maximumpc.com/article/featur...MC-R3A917316679

"Invented by Intel in 1978, the x86 architecture has evolved through the ages, not only getting faster, but increasingly flexible as more and more extensions and instruction sets accompany each new release. It's been a wild ride the past 30 years, and whether you lived through it all or have only recently picked up your first processor, we invite you to join as we look back at not only the most popular x86 CPUs in its history, but ones you may never even have heard of."

Maximum PC takes a trip down memory lane to celebrate the 31st year of the x86 legacy. Despite competition from various other types of processors and its current battle against the ARM chip, x86 from the 8086 to the Core i7 has dominted the PC market. The look back on the history of this line covers the arms race between Intel, AMD and Via as well as some other notable events. I have to admit that I'm surprised that the Pentium-M was not touched on, which I consider to probably be one of the biggest turning points in recent history, especially for Intel. It's still good to get a get a sense of how we got where we are with PCs and for those of us who have lived through most or all of this legacy, it brings up some points of nostalgia. I for one miss the "Turbo" button.


Tuesday, January 6, 2009

ARM Poised To Join Netbook Craze

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 10:00 PM

http://gigaom.com/2009/01/06/netboo...-x86-computing/

"Freescale said Monday it would offer an ARM-based chip that could lead to a $200 Linux-based netbook, offering about twice the amount of usage on a single battery charge as Intel’s Atom processor allows. Freescale’s efforts are nothing new (only AMD has so far stayed above the netbook fray), but it did get me thinking about how Intel’s endless pushing of netbooks has, ironically, helped destroy the hegemony of x86 machines for personal computing."

Up until now, netbooks are powered by the x86 legacy. Gigaom notes that Freescale is looking to change that. I've seen hints of some manufacturers in China producing ARM based netbooks as well, this news might help push major manufacturers to join in. The lower power nature of ARM based CPUs is certainly welcome, I've yet to see any ARM based computing device provide a comparable browsing experience. This includes the iPhone, Nokia N810 and WinMo devices. The extra power that an x86 CPU uses, in the overall power consumption of a netbook, is more than offset by the speed at which it renders webpages. Still, I welcome the competition as I'm sure that ARM devices, netbooks or otherwise, will eventually catch up in speed to x86 netbooks.

Tags: gigaom, netbook, arm, x86, cpu

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