Intel on x86 vs ARM - Power consumption vs Performance

[KnightWRX]

Interesting read on how Intel sees the myth (that ARM is more power efficient because of the instruction set, rather than the limited performance of the SOCs)

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...s-no-future-for-arm-or-any-of-its-competitors

[...] the Intel bigwig is a friendly giant; he laughs. “For a long time, we were trying to battle hearsay with PowerPoint presentations. The only real way to do it is to build an actual device and say “Look, go measure it yourself.’” The Medfield-powered Xolo X900, which we benchmarked earlier in the year, falls slightly behind in some tests, but pulls ahead in others. Bell continues: “It’s complicated. We’re not the lowest in power consumption, but we’re the lowest in some things. Doing 1080p video we’re a little higher than other phones doing 720p — but those phones can’t do 1080p. Standby time, we’re at the top of the pack. Power-wise, we’re good; performance-wise, we either exceed by a large amount, or we’re roughly the same — and in some of those cases, we consume less power during the benchmarks.”

Personally, I'm of the same opinion. Medfield is a nice proof of it all and Adnroid phones running x86 Medfield SoCs should provide ample proof of that. ARM is not more power efficient at the same performance levels. Apple is not going to suddenly do another architecture change for Mac users, there is no advantage to moving away from x86.

I think a lot of the wishful thinking of ARM moving to x86 is a wish by people wanting to be "black sheeps" in computing. Not running the same architecture as the other guys are, being marginal. The clique that are "PowerPC fans!" aren't PPC fans because it's better, but because it's different. Difference for difference sake's is sad. Stop trying to define yourself based on goods. Again, my opinion on the whole thing.

 

[smoledman]

Until Medfield powered tablets are in the wild and Engadget compares them to iPads I won't believe it.

 

[G51989]

I can agree with that. I don't see any power consumption or performance advantages with ARM at all. I could be wrong.

I don't understand why some people want to switch Macs to ARM. It would just be a throwback to the PowerPC days of nothing being compatible with anything

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Until Medfield powered tablets are in the wild and Engadget compares them to iPads I won't believe it.

I don't see as to why Intel would make anything up with this, They make X86 and ARM chips. They gain nothing by making **** up.

 

[KnightWRX]

I don't see as to why Intel would make anything up with this, They make X86 and ARM chips. They gain nothing by making **** up.

Medfield is in the wild anyway. The Xolo X900

The numbers are out there, showing Intel is capable of ARM like power consumption on a x86 platform.

 

[G51989]

Medfield is in the wild anyway. The Xolo X900

The numbers are out there, showing Intel is capable of ARM like power consumption on a x86 platform.

Yes, I know. I was getting at what's his faces post. And lets be honest. He won't believe it anyway, even when these tablets hit the market.

Now, what I don't understand. Are some peoples obsessions with ARM, some applications I understand ARM is great for. But as far as Tablets/Smartphones go. I don't see an advantage going to ARM at all. And I really really don't see an advantage going in a full sized laptop or Netbook.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Yes, I know. I was getting at what's his faces post. And lets be honest. He won't believe it anyway, even when these tablets hit the market.

Now, what I don't understand. Are some peoples obsessions with ARM, some applications I understand ARM is great for. But as far as Tablets/Smartphones go. I don't see an advantage going to ARM at all. And I really really don't see an advantage going in a full sized laptop or Netbook.

My guess is you have the Apple worshippers who know Apple owns fair amount of Arm stuff and think Apple will want to in house everything from Chip design up.

 

[thekev]

Edit: full article is a great read, I was mostly responding to the comment before

I don't understand why some people want to switch Macs to ARM.

They want to feel like they know something about tech, and ARM became cool with the idevices. Intel doesn't sound new or cool. I'm totally serious. No one wants to research. They hear that it's efficient on power and begin to theorize on how long their laptop would run powered by ARM while completely ignoring the power consumption by components other than the SOC or the difference in NAND and its configuration used in something like the RMBP compared to the ipad. The ipad isn't just powered by ARM. Its entire design revolves around exceptionally low power consumption.

 

[G51989]

They want to feel like they know something about tech, and ARM became cool with the idevices. Intel doesn't sound new or cool. I'm totally serious. No one wants to research. They hear that it's efficient on power and begin to theorize on how long their laptop would run powered by ARM while completely ignoring the power consumption by components other than the SOC or the difference in NAND and its configuration used in something like the RMBP compared to the ipad. The ipad isn't just powered by ARM. Its entire design revolves around exceptionally low power consumption.

Oh boy. Here comes the PowerPC days all over again

 

[KnightWRX]

Edit: full article is a great read, I was mostly responding to the comment before



They want to feel like they know something about tech, and ARM became cool with the idevices. Intel doesn't sound new or cool. I'm totally serious. No one wants to research. They hear that it's efficient on power and begin to theorize on how long their laptop would run powered by ARM while completely ignoring the power consumption by components other than the SOC or the difference in NAND and its configuration used in something like the RMBP compared to the ipad. The ipad isn't just powered by ARM. Its entire design revolves around exceptionally low power consumption.

Not to mention the power draw of a ARM processor capable of rivaling Intel's laptop/desktop line up of chips. There's a reason Intel has the TDP they do. They can and do make very lower power chips as evidenced by Medfield SoCs, and those can rival current Cortex A9 architecture chips easily. ARM however has no design that rivals Ivy Bridge level chips and if they did, you can be sure as heck it wouldn't fit into the 3W TDP envelope their current design does.

Again, people clamoring for ARM in Macs just want it so it's different. I have a UltraSparc II+ box sitting in my closet, I'd part with it for 500$ if anyone really wants to be that different.

 

[thekev]

Oh boy. Here comes the PowerPC days all over again

Heh... I've read that argument before. It's not like that absolutely couldn't happen, but I feel like sometimes the why and how are misinterpreted. It would need some kind of advantage at least at the level of something like the macbook pro to gain traction. In the case of PowerPC, Apple's lineup was suffering much more from its fragmentation at the time. This time what would they really gain from such a transition? It causes a lot of lag time with developers getting things ported over, and something Rosetta-like would probably run at an unacceptable pace on ARM.

Not to mention the power draw of a ARM processor capable of rivaling Intel's laptop/desktop line up of chips. There's a reason Intel has the TDP they do. They can and do make very lower power chips as evidenced by Medfield SoCs, and those can rival current Cortex A9 architecture chips easily. ARM however has no design that rivals Ivy Bridge level chips and if they did, you can be sure as heck it wouldn't fit into the 3W TDP envelope their current design does.

Again, people clamoring for ARM in Macs just want it so it's different. I have a UltraSparc II+ box sitting in my closet, I'd part with it for 500$ if anyone really wants to be that different.

You're right, and even if they had a proof of concept, we have yet to see any such ARM design in the wild. Whether we're talking today or years from now, they'd have to be quite confident to make such a move. It takes more than an argument that Intel also supplies competitors as this will remain the same with any commodity purchase.