Archean
Posts: 5,650 +102
A view point about what Medfield did and why ARM is feeling the heat already, and Joel summed it up nicely :
What Medfield did do was punch a giant hole in the myth that Intel couldn’t make a smartphone chip — and we think that’s ultimately what East is so upset about ..... Previously, ARM had the luxury of giving lip service to the idea of Intel as a competitor while comforting itself on cold, lonely nights with Moorestown’s power consumption figures. Sure, Intel was doing a 32nm Atom, but it was saddled with the x86 ISA (as represented below). ARM, in contrast, was Scarlet Johanssen, all beautiful power curves and RISCque expanses of skin.
Now that Intel’s in the ring, future devices from the top ARM vendors will have to compete on their merits against the most advanced foundry in the world. ARM will try to focus the debate on the question of architectural efficiency, but that ship has sailed. Whatever small differences favor ARM, the company will need them to offset Intel’s manufacturing lead. The slide above applies just as much to the smartphone market as it does to the server and home PC segments of previous decades. The criteria have changed, but Intel’s strengths are hard to counter over the long term.
What Medfield did do was punch a giant hole in the myth that Intel couldn’t make a smartphone chip — and we think that’s ultimately what East is so upset about ..... Previously, ARM had the luxury of giving lip service to the idea of Intel as a competitor while comforting itself on cold, lonely nights with Moorestown’s power consumption figures. Sure, Intel was doing a 32nm Atom, but it was saddled with the x86 ISA (as represented below). ARM, in contrast, was Scarlet Johanssen, all beautiful power curves and RISCque expanses of skin.
Now that Intel’s in the ring, future devices from the top ARM vendors will have to compete on their merits against the most advanced foundry in the world. ARM will try to focus the debate on the question of architectural efficiency, but that ship has sailed. Whatever small differences favor ARM, the company will need them to offset Intel’s manufacturing lead. The slide above applies just as much to the smartphone market as it does to the server and home PC segments of previous decades. The criteria have changed, but Intel’s strengths are hard to counter over the long term.
