Comparing ARM performance with x86s

[Nemesis 1]

Well you're assuming a linear correlation between power - performance, which most of the times doesn't hold true. Usually power hikes much faster than performance. But then especially for ARM chips at the moment they're changing quite a lot from each generation to the next, so it's not as if interpolating from an A8 will get us anywhere.

But it seems that Intel finally started to take Atom serious (but late than never..) and not treat it like the unloved stepchild, so we'll see how their next iterations turn out.

@Nemesis: I extremely, extremely doubt that Intel will try a new architecture on a new process with lots of unknowns. Their tick-tock strategy has worked quite well for them and not doing that is one cornerstone of it.
So either we'll see a new Atom arch on an older process, they let the 22nm process mature a bit before we get a new Atom or we see the old Atom with light changes on the new process. But with Atom being what it is even the best process in the world won't do much good imo.

ya exactly thats what Intel said 3 new processes in 3 years . NEW Atom comes on 22nm second year that 1 year old process . intel said 3 new atom process nodes in 3 years.
32nm this year 22 nm in 2 years folled a year later by 14nm that the roadmap as we understand

 

[podspi]

Here are some interesting comments from via's management on just this subject
Apparently via has licenses for both arm and x86 yet they continue to push x86

"When an OEM manufacturer looks at their BOM [bill of materials] for comparably equipped platforms, there is not a huge spread between the cost of the Via low-power x86 platform and the ARM-based platform. They still require a CPU, system memory, data storage, and graphics capabilities, while display costs are nearly a mirror image of each other. So you will not see a 20% - 30% spread in the cost of manufacturing comparable platforms," assumed the vice president of Via Technologies.

It makes you wonder why... Via hasn't seen a lot of success in x86, at least in the U.S. I'd imagine that they would be well positioned (due to their experience in CPUs and chipsets) to produce an ARM SoC.