Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Posted Mar 1, 2012 20:54 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252)
In reply to: Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android by kevlar
Parent article: Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

If a 1.6 ghz atom gets red hot and a 1ghz arm is tiny and gets a little warm, do you really believe they are anywhere equivalent.

Sorry, but Z2460 has TDP of 4W and it's full SoC: CPU, video, etc. Everything. I doubt you can get it “red hot” without putting it in vacuum flask.

ARM chips are impressive at what they do especially per joule of heat.

Sure, ARM chips are impressive but so are Intel's. And Intel has advantage in the semiconductor process technology - enough to compensate for CISC/RISC difference. They just started from the opposite points: Intel had chips which were much faster (yes, even Atom), but also significantly more power-hungry. ARM increased speed over time - but this leads to increased power consumption, too: toys like ASUS Transformer Prime can become pretty hot under heavy load. Intel needed to decrease consumption instead: even three year old model is faster then CPU in aforementioned brand-sparkling-new ASUS Transformer Prime… but it needs few times more power, too.

That's why today they are roughly equivalent: they started from the opposite points on the speed/consumption spectrum, but in the last three years they moved toward the same point. I think when we'll see Cortex-A15 we'll find out it's roughly equivalent to what Intel will show then, too: Intel will need to further reduce consumption of it's “serious” chips (Core line, not Atom line) while ARM will need to increase speed yet again.

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Handset cohabitation: Ubuntu for Android

Posted Mar 1, 2012 21:11 UTC (Thu) by alkbyby (subscriber, #61687) [Link]

Just to put a bit of context here. I wasn't meant to start that intel vs. arm debate.

I've raised this specifically because article made claim that ARM have grown and is "fast enough". And we definitely have enough evidence to doubt that.

So far my impressions is that ARM is not yet there. So it seems a bit early to claim that you don't need your PC. But maybe a couple of years from now we'll see. Ubuntu's idea looks neat.

So in this context I don't care if that's intel or arm chip as long as it gives or not gives us future where "normal" users don't need PC.