why the goal of moving iphone cpu to x86?

her34

Senior member
Dec 4, 2004
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with idf and intel 0.5w cpu, there much talk of apple wanting to move iphone to x86 to unify their software.

even if x86 cpu reaches a power and space efficiency good enough for portable devices, wouldn't an arm cpu provide that much more battery life?

right now battery life trumps convenience of software development. why would that change in the future?
 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
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$$$

The goal is to make more money.

You are looking for a technology based reason, which will never be the reason outside of whatever marketing decides to spin to the consumer.

Figure out how Apple going x86 for iPhone will increase Apple's net earnings and then you will have found the reason.
 

HopJokey

Platinum Member
May 6, 2005
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Ease of development is one guess. Having all your developers from OS people down to CE devices working on the same architecture is nice.
 

NoStateofMind

Diamond Member
Oct 14, 2005
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Originally posted by: HopJokey
Ease of development is one guess. Having all your developers from OS people down to CE devices working on the same architecture is nice.

I think you hit it on the head.:thumbsup:
 

her34

Senior member
Dec 4, 2004
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Originally posted by: HopJokey
Ease of development is one guess. Having all your developers from OS people down to CE devices working on the same architecture is nice.

but that was true when apple made the current iphone and yet they decided battery life was more important.

what would be different in the future that would cause apple to choose ease of devlopment over battery life
 

IntelUser2000

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2003
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with idf and intel 0.5w cpu, there much talk of apple wanting to move iphone to x86 to unify their software.

0.5W version is Silverthorne, which will go into UMPC's featuring full WindowsXP/Vista functionality, while Moorestown will be the one going into the "iphone copy/future iphone". Of course, Moorestown will be even lower than 0.5W in power.
 

SexyK

Golden Member
Jul 30, 2001
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Originally posted by: her34
what would be different in the future that would cause apple to choose ease of devlopment over battery life

In the future we will have low-power x86 CPUs that offer ease of development and reasonable battery life. We don't have that now, so they chose to develop for a different platform and get good battery life rather than having a unified platform and a phone that lasts 20 minutes on battery power.