X86's Days as a Consumer Microarchitecture are Numbered
plus.google.com
X86's Days as a Consumer Microarchitecture are Numbered
1–10 of 81 posts
Re: X86's Days as a Consumer Microarchitecture are Numbered
#2I'm excited about ARM processors for low-power applications but I can't see ARM replacing x86 processors (even in the consumer space) until ARM performance is comparable to x86 performance. Right now the slowest MacBook Air is 6x faster than the iPad 2; until the difference is 2x or less I just can't see companies or consumers switching to ARM.
Re: X86's Days as a Consumer Microarchitecture are Numbered
#3This is really more AMD throwing in the towel vs. Intel. It's really disappointing to see a competitor leave such an important market. I'm much more disappointed to see the X86 market go from 2 to 1, than I am happy to see the ARM market go from 4 to 5.
Re: X86's Days as a Consumer Microarchitecture are Numbered
#4I'm excited about ARM processors for low-power applications but I can't see ARM replacing x86 processors (even in the consumer space) until ARM performance is comparable to x86 performance. Right now the slowest MacBook Air is 6x faster than the iPad 2; until the difference is 2x or less I just can't see companies or consumers switching to ARM.
I think it's more a matter of the bulk of consumer "micro architecture" usage shifting from computers to "devices", a la tablets, mobile phones, cars, appliances, etc. Right now, we frame our picture of consumer micro architecture as devices that look or act like a computer, but that vision is changing rapidly. Cumulatively, these devices far, far outnumber computers.
Re: X86's Days as a Consumer Microarchitecture are Numbered
#5This is really more AMD throwing in the towel vs. Intel. It's really disappointing to see a competitor leave such an important market. I'm much more disappointed to see the X86 market go from 2 to 1, than I am happy to see the ARM market go from 4 to 5.
It's an important market now. AMD is doing the right thing: they are in no position to compete with Intel and the x86 is not going to see big growth unless Intel pulls off a miracle.
Re: X86's Days as a Consumer Microarchitecture are Numbered
#6This is really more AMD throwing in the towel vs. Intel. It's really disappointing to see a competitor leave such an important market. I'm much more disappointed to see the X86 market go from 2 to 1, than I am happy to see the ARM market go from 4 to 5.
Where is AMD throwing in the towel? I know they've had some trouble with their latest designs, but I haven't seen anything about them giving up, just that they are trying again.
Re: X86's Days as a Consumer Microarchitecture are Numbered
#7I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned that X86 and ARM are instruction set architectures, not microarchitectures.
Re: X86's Days as a Consumer Microarchitecture are Numbered
#8I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned that X86 and ARM are instruction set architectures, not microarchitectures.
[deleted]
Re: X86's Days as a Consumer Microarchitecture are Numbered
#9We don't mind using an assortment of different tools to accomplish other tasks. Why should we expect that a one-size-fits all world of ARM tablets and phones is going to completely displace the tools we're using now?
Re: X86's Days as a Consumer Microarchitecture are Numbered
#10I'm excited about ARM processors for low-power applications but I can't see ARM replacing x86 processors (even in the consumer space) until ARM performance is comparable to x86 performance. Right now the slowest MacBook Air is 6x faster than the iPad 2; until the difference is 2x or less I just can't see companies or consumers switching to ARM.
6x the performance . . . for 8.5x the TDP. It's pretty easy to see why ARM designs are already preferable for almost anything that has a battery, and laptops are outselling desktops already. Sure, there will always be applications where single-thread performance will matter more than total performance or performance per watt for many cores - believe me, we learned that lesson at SiCortex - but those applications are not enough to sustain Intel as we know it. There's a reason they're developing MIC; without it they'd be squeezed between ARM clients and servers with 20+ ARM/MIPS/POWER/SPARC cores per chip (not even counting GPU/FPGA server plays). They need their own many-core product to compete.