Advantages of ARM over x86?

[galego]

Probably all of us know the rumour (I don't believe it) about Intel buying AMD. People spreading the rumour said that this is because x86 microprocessors lose share to ARM.

I know that ARM has advantages regarding power consumption, but what other advantages has ARM when compared to x86?

This is what I could find up to now:

• Simple architecture
• Easier manufacture
• Smaller form factor
• Simple assembler (easy to optimize code)
• thumb mode to increase code density (so a program fits in less memory)
• ARM beats Xeon and Opteron processors in both raw performance and performance-per-watt.

This last part is what surprised me more. However, I can find Nvidia, Dell, and others claiming that ARM is the way to go for supercomputers. I found that a group of European researchers are using ARM for building the fastest supercomputer in the Earth

http://news.softpedia.com/news/ARM-...ter-Built-by-European-Consortium-230389.shtml

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/04/barcelona/

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2032568/dell-working-on-arm-supercomputer-prototypes.html

http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-...-says-ARM-supercomputer-to-be-more-efficient-

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14794460/how-does-the-arm-architecture-differ-from-x86

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...-is-a-serious-threat-to-x86-server-domination

We've done this thread so many times... Let's take a break this weekend.
-ViRGE

 

[blackened23]

[*]ARM beats Xeon and Opteron processors in both raw performance and performance-per-watt.

No.

[*]ARM beats Xeon and Opteron processors in both raw performance and performance-per-watt.

Highly speculative. All of the existing prototypes are trying to see if they can create systems using thousands of ARM chips to gain better performance per watt.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Not more of these trollthreads.

 

[Rezist]

ARM is low power and low performance which seems to be the future.

 

[Cerb]

I know that ARM has advantages regarding power consumption, but what other advantages has ARM when compared to x86?

An open competitive CPU/SoC ecosystem. In x86-land, Intel owns the world, AMD conned them out of part of it, and the other guys don't matter (VIA, FI).

Simple architecture

Not by enough to matter. Once you get past the decoder, and in x86's case, flag management, everything else is going to be roughly comparable.

Easier manufacture

Easier to get a license for, but manufacuring will be about the same.

Smaller form factor

No.

Simple assembler (easy to optimize code)

Yes, but that's not so much of an advantage, in a to-x86 comparison. x86 doesn't need those optimziations that much, and neither will higher-performing ARM CPUs.

thumb mode to increase code density (so a program fits in less memory)

As a RISC, it needed it. x86-64 isn't as good regarding code density as IA32 tended to be, but it's still smaller than ARM.

ARM beats Xeon and Opteron processors in both raw performance and performance-per-watt.

As of today, it does neither. Even Bulldozer offers better perf/Watt.

ARM's advantage is that you can build your own custom chip for your own custom need. As ARM CPUs get faster, and get 64-bit support, that very well could mean a faster and/or lower-power chip compared to Intel's offerings. With the microservers, it could also mean improved thermal density, and more DRAM bandwidth, which can be a limiting factor for message-passing systems, like Hadoop.

Performance superiority may come, and who knows how soon, but it's still something to see about in the future. The biggest thing is that with x86, like with Microsoft, you are beholden on a single other company to make decisions that fit with your decisions, and you lose if they don't.

 

[grimpr]

By 2018 Intel will be a global multinational monopoly and into software.

 

[Cerb]

By 2018 Intel will be a global multinational monopoly and into software.

I think you're a few years behind. They've already done that. If you mean doing it well by 2018, we'll see, but asid from basic system drivers, I can't say I have a lot of confidence in Intel and software, at least as far as being good, useful, and attracting businesses. Maybe they've changed, but...

 

[blackened23]

Not more of these trollthreads.

That's the impression I get as well. Troll thread. Especially when I read the part about ARM having better raw performance than x86.

 

[Phynaz]

Ugh. Like the op couldn't look down the page and see this exact same thread.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

 

[mikk]

The 5 years old Atom was able to beat best ARM at power efficiency, the new Silvermont ATOM is just in his own league. Reality in my hand

https://twitter.com/FPiednoel/status/330502619275591681


Wait for Silvermont.

 

[aigomorla]

https://twitter.com/FPiednoel/status/330502619275591681


Wait for Silvermont.

7-13w haswell would slaughter anything that's in the same class.

Haswell will probably kill ARM until u throw price into the equation heavily.

ARM only got popular because no one has a power cell which could handle the heat and power requirements of a said handheld until we see haswell.

Id rather have a fast windows 7 handheld over a android any day of the week if battery life was equal.

Honestly who wouldn't