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ARM vs x86 - does the A10 change things?
http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/16/12939310/iphone-7-a10-fusion-processor-apple-intel-future
An interesting read, particularly where the A10 beat out a Xeon E5-2697 in single threaded performance. It's one particular benchmark that doeasn't really mean a whole lot, but still, the fact that ARM running off a Li-Ion battery in a phone can even compete against a semi-modern server-class CPU in a workstation chassis at all serves to illustrate a few points:
Mobile computing is accelerating extremely fast
x86 is losing relevance in favor of ARM - all of the R&D dollars are going into mobile systems, not desktop/server, and not even laptop
That allows players other than Intel and AMD are well into the race. Apple has the A10 now, Samsung and Qualcomm won't be far behind
Apples desktop line is pathetic (I'm an Apple fan but there's no denying this fact)
Now, some naysayers may say "My desktop will always be a desktop chip". Perhaps. But "desktop" chips haven't seen any meaningful innovation in a long time, and the "desktop" as we know it has long since turned into a dinosaur.
Now I see one of the first real contenders in the ARM arena that could conceivably compete with an x86. It won't replace a Core i7 6700 today, but it could start to replace standard Pentiums and maybe even i3's in some devices. The fact that it's able to stand it's own is impressive, and it isn't hard to look at the performance/growth curves of ARM vs x86 and see that there could be a point soon where the two could intersect, at least in the consumer space.
We've seen ARM in chromebooks and Surface (non-Pro), and it's mostly fallen on it's face. But those were several generations before the ARM CPUs we are seeing today, such as the A10. There's been a long standing rumor that Apple has been striving to replace Intel in their full-computer line, and the A10 looks like it's very nearly there. It may not happen with the A10, but I'd be surprised if it hasn't happened by the A12 or A13 down the road.
Honestly, it makes me more excited about ARM than it does about Zen or xxxxLake. ARM is currently where x86 was in the late 80's and throughout the 1990's.
An interesting read, particularly where the A10 beat out a Xeon E5-2697 in single threaded performance. It's one particular benchmark that doeasn't really mean a whole lot, but still, the fact that ARM running off a Li-Ion battery in a phone can even compete against a semi-modern server-class CPU in a workstation chassis at all serves to illustrate a few points:
Mobile computing is accelerating extremely fast
x86 is losing relevance in favor of ARM - all of the R&D dollars are going into mobile systems, not desktop/server, and not even laptop
That allows players other than Intel and AMD are well into the race. Apple has the A10 now, Samsung and Qualcomm won't be far behind
Apples desktop line is pathetic (I'm an Apple fan but there's no denying this fact)
Now, some naysayers may say "My desktop will always be a desktop chip". Perhaps. But "desktop" chips haven't seen any meaningful innovation in a long time, and the "desktop" as we know it has long since turned into a dinosaur.
Now I see one of the first real contenders in the ARM arena that could conceivably compete with an x86. It won't replace a Core i7 6700 today, but it could start to replace standard Pentiums and maybe even i3's in some devices. The fact that it's able to stand it's own is impressive, and it isn't hard to look at the performance/growth curves of ARM vs x86 and see that there could be a point soon where the two could intersect, at least in the consumer space.
We've seen ARM in chromebooks and Surface (non-Pro), and it's mostly fallen on it's face. But those were several generations before the ARM CPUs we are seeing today, such as the A10. There's been a long standing rumor that Apple has been striving to replace Intel in their full-computer line, and the A10 looks like it's very nearly there. It may not happen with the A10, but I'd be surprised if it hasn't happened by the A12 or A13 down the road.
Honestly, it makes me more excited about ARM than it does about Zen or xxxxLake. ARM is currently where x86 was in the late 80's and throughout the 1990's.
Comments
2. Intel doesnt want to share x86 license, in fact, if AMD gets sold (for instance) it loses its x86 license (and Intel loses x64 license in return)
3. AMD is already working on integration of diffrent chips so they can work together (along with some other companies)
4. Intel is starting to rent out their fabs to make ARM chips since their sales are dropping quite fast and hey have no use for their fabs (x86 chips)
"Intel has for many years been the undisputed champion of desktop and laptop processors running the x86 instruction set. Its sole competitor, AMD, hasn’t actually been competitive since around the turn of the century, and we have the Wintel portmanteau reminding us of the enduring dominance of Intel’s chips and Microsoft’s Windows OS in the years since. But many things have changed since the days of comparing AMD’s Thunderbird against Intel’s Pentium."
Apparently the Athlon 64 never happened.
To address the point of the article, there's no intrinsic reason why you can't build an ARM processor with high IPC. If we take that benchmark as the sole measure of IPC (a big mistake) and assume that there aren't any confounding factors (different OS, different compiler, different code, etc., so this is another big mistake), it really only means that Apple has roughly caught up to Intel in IPC. Remember that they're using an Intel Ivy Bridge CPU for the comparison, three generations before the current Sky Lake. AMD should get into that ballpark with Zen, too. But the A10 hasn't demonstrated the capability to have that IPC and still run at 4 GHz, which Intel has.
Could Apple build a server processor based on ARM that competes effectively with Xeon? Maybe they could. I don't know. I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand, as Apple has some processor design talent and could throw a ton of money at it if they were so inclined, which they don't seem to be. But they haven't.