Posted on 06/01/2010 10:09:58 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Introduction
In this in-depth analysis, we will discuss the emerging competition between ARM and x86 microprocessors. Led by the Intel Atom, x86 chips are quickly migrating downwards into embedded, low-power environments, while ARM CPUs are beginning to flood upwards into the more sophisticated and demanding market spaces currently owned by x86 processors. The central focus of this report will be an extensive compute performance comparison between the ARM Cortex-A8 versus the new Intel Atom N450, the new VIA Nano L3050 and, for historical perspective, an old AMD Mobile Athlon based upon the Barton core. The Apple iPad A4 system-on-chip [SoC] is equipped with a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8.
The Coming War: ARM versus x86
Over the last few years a war has been brewing. Two armies have been massing troops in their respective strongholds. Inside desktops, notebooks, servers and now even reaching into mainframes and supercomputers, the x86 family of microprocessors has mercilessly driven all competitors to extinction.
The "x86" moniker refers to the descendents of the 16-bit Intel 8086. Its 8-bit little brother, the Intel 8088, was the chip that powered the first IBM PC back in August, 1981. Shockingly primitive by today’s standards, the 8088 spoke a computer dialect that is still understood by the most modern, powerful and successful CPUs from Intel, AMD and VIA.
The roll call of those vanquished by the x86 family include microprocessors from IBM, DEC, Motorola, HP, Sun, Silicon Graphics, Commodore and even rivals from within Intel itself. Resistance has been futile.
(Excerpt) Read more at brightsideofnews.com ...
Somewhat dated,...since both Intel and ARM (via Snapdragon ) are making announcements.
What is current king of the hill were I ordering a general purpose desktop tomorrow Ernest ?
x86 is still desktop king.
ARMs are used for portable devices (like your phone) and other embedded systems like routers.
If you need raw horsepower, x86 is your choice. If you need really low power consumption, ARM wins. They really serve orthogonal markets, very little overlap.
A 1 GHz ARM is pushing it to get 1000 MIPS; an Atom processor (lower power x86 based core) at 1 GHz delivers about 2200 MIPS. The ARM does it at about 0.3W; the Atom pulls about 0.7W.
Now to your question:
Intel and AMD own the landscape for General Purpose computers....
For Gamers and Video processors the top end Intel processors are the fastest and most expensive....
In my humble opinion for General usage AMD delivers the best Performance per buck...when you consider the whole platform including motherboard...
I just assembled a machine that has an ASUS Motherboard with the new 880 AMD chip ,...ill handle the new SATA III (6 Gb/sec and the new USB 3 ....and had BIOS ready for the AMD Thuban 6 processor chip.
Runs very nicely,...responsive and rarely encounters anything on the web that slows it down.
Motherboard and processor under half the price of the top end Intel chip.
Not as fast though...I guess...but for what I do...I doubt the intel would be faster. I do have 4 Gig of memory but rarely get over 50 & usage....
But my criteria is to have a machine that is always waiting ON ME.....
No man should wait on a Machine.....
AMD Llano "Fusion" taped out, 32nm SOI CPU + GPU
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How much can you mash into a space....CPU AND Graphics ....?
Road trippin Ern..... reading it all answering at stops on a blk berry or a HP Pavilion tx 1000 tablet....... grateful fir all the info !! Your my goto for latesst and greatest for my net tools........
Thanks all for the input....raw power an as Ern states.....it needs to wait for me versus.
Grateful.
I think if you do the laptop thing,...there is gonna be lots of waiting for a few more years before they can mash the circuits small enough to deliver power like they can now on desktops.
My Thuban (6 processors) is amazing... runs cooler and way faster than some of my older X2 AMD processors.( Just a few years old...)
Third face of the octagonal cube has monitor running showing 6 processors working away ...no one of them laboring over 50%...just two of them close to that...
Changing to a different face causes a blip on the cycles...
The Operating system is Linux Mint Release 9 64 bit.
HDD is a Seagate barracuda 1500 Gigabyte ...using the integrated AMD 4290 on the moBo to drive the LG LCD 23 " display...
I Do have an IOGEAR 4X switch between the box and keyboard , mouse and monitor....
So if I wish I can switch to one of the other possible 3 additional Cases with various combinations of processors and video cards....
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I am an old Main Frame guy so I like Big Iron around me....LOL!
I use to consider PC as Toys.,...but they have grown up a bit now.
The big pipecutter is about to go onto the riser....
Wow....grateful for the information.
When I get off this trip to a laptop vs a blkbery storm thumb wrestler. I will have a few more question .
Again.....thank you !
And for consoles the POWER/PowerPC architecture pretty much has it wrapped-up. :)
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