ARM Aims To Deliver Core i5 Like Performance At Less Than 5 Watts

[Marc Driftmeyer]

ARM has been getting better at a faster pace than x86, but yeah their timeline is likely overrated. I wouldn't buy a 2 core CPU, but I would a 4 core one. If they have it by 2021 I'd probably go for it if it used like less than 10W.

And their mali video drivers are closed source, so .. f#ck it.

Everything accelerates at a faster pace when you're at the beginning of the race.

[cl333r]

Everything accelerates at a faster pace when you're at the beginning of the race.

No, it's because ARM is less complicated than x86 and because for a long time ARM didn't bother trying to compete with x86.

[wizard69]

I aim to be a multi-billionaire with an hot all-natural wife and a sprawling compound, doesn't mean it's happening next year.

If you are billionaire you can have a wife built to spec.

Are they aiming to match every performance metric of the i5-7300U?

Interesting question. The smart move would be to do end runs around Intel that offers buyers real advantages. For example work in the long vector support that they worked with fijitsu on. Integrate solid machine learning hardware. Things like this can lead to huge gains in specialized code.

Just standard scalar code performance?

Sadly just as likely the only thing they care about.

Are we really supposed to believe that two thirds of the power budget of the i5-7300U is "things intel hasn't figured out" and "x86 overhead"?

Yes! Intel has several problems one of which is never caring about the ultra low power market. Plus they have been a little obsessed with backward compatibility leaving their processors with hardware to support hardly used instructions and memory models.

In ARMs case and probably a goal at Apple, they can pare the processor down to just what the modern 64 bit world needs. I say probably Apple due to their very agressive guidance to developer to move their apps to the 64 bit processors and libraries. When the bulk of the libray of apps is 64 bits they can easily drop all hardware in their processors supporting ARMs old 32 bit architectures. The end result should be a very clean 64 bit processor implementation reducing size, thermals and increasing performance.

So yeah Intel isnt the technology leader in low power and frankly never have been.

[wizard69]

Hopefully they'll implement upstream support for ARM-based laptops, otherwise all of this is hardly useful.

Honestly i was really hoping that we would see a change in attitude with ARMs new ownership. Open sourced drivers are the one big reason i went with AMD in my last laptop buy. While the drivers have lagged a bit with respect to stability ((Ryzen mobile) i have what i believe is an excellent value for running Linux. Without strong Linux support (that means open drivers) i really dont see how ARM even has a chance in the laptop world or even with alternative Linux based tablets. Oh im speaking of Linux here, i have zero need for Googles Android spy ware. Outside of cell phones ARMs best chance for volume lies in Linux based hardware which is something you would think that would be understood at ARM.

[starshipeleven]

Hah, better than a fake "ultrabook" i5? How about better than an actual i5 you lazy bummers.

[starshipeleven]

Hopefully they'll implement upstream support for ARM-based laptops, otherwise all of this is hardly useful.

There isn't a lot that ARM can do in this regard even if they wanted to. They provide IP (schematics) to have CPU cores or other things but the final design is from someone else. In many cases the parts that matter aren't from ARM (like say the media acceleration hardware, or the drivers for touchscreens/gyroscopes/GPS/whatever else is on the board).

[gukin]

When I saw i5 like performance I thought: "wow if they can match the i5 8250u that would be pretty impressive" However they specified the 7300U which is a two core non SMT processor. The 8250U is a four core SMT processor and it IS pretty impressive, as Michael has shown with his little Dell.

Still it's good that ARM is at least trying to nip at the heels of AMD and Intel. Comparing my I5 8250U to my I7 73500U, the 8250U just smacks it down hard, the thing clocks up to 3.4GHz when only one or two threads are needed and settles at 2.4GHz when they're all at load.

[hajj_3]

didn't arm say in 2015 that by 2020 they estimate that they will have a 20% server market share? Oh yeah they did.

I suspect that arm is comparing intel's dual core processor with a 4 core cortex a76 not dual core. As a result it could match the multithreaded performance but would have half the single core performance.

[c117152]

Hah, better than a fake "ultrabook" i5? How about better than an actual i5 you lazy bummers.

Would you buy one knowing your games, CAD and graphic design software isn't going to become available for years to come? Cause that's what people use i5s for. Otherwise, that fake "ultrabook" i5 is good enough once the WinTel tax is removed.

[starshipeleven]

Would you buy one knowing your games, CAD and graphic design software isn't going to become available for years to come? Cause that's what people use i5s for. Otherwise, that fake "ultrabook" i5 is good enough once the WinTel tax is removed.

I'd like to point out that until they make decently powerful processors, none will even remotely care about making "games, CAD and graphic design software" that run on it.

I don't need a toy processor for internet browsing, regardless of how "free" it might be.