Intel CEO Paul Otellini talked about the company's plans to take on ARM in a fourth-quarter earnings conference call.
During Intel's fourth-quarter earnings conference call Thursday, CEO Paul Otellini revealed company plans to compete with the rapidly growing ARM chip ecosystem knocking at the backdoor. Currently ARM is leading the tablet sector with giant leaps, with Apple's offering its own flavor of ARM in the iPad, and Motorola, RIM and Samsung basing their tablet designs around the power-efficient ARM processors.
Of course, there's also rival Nvidia and its just-announced "Project Denver" consisting of a Nvidia CPU--running the ARM instruction set--that's fully integrated with a Nvidia GPU. This will bring ARM up into the PC sector, making it available for desktops, data center servers and even supercomputers.
"ARM’s modern architecture, open business model, and vibrant eco-system have led to its pervasiveness in cell phones, tablets, and other embedded devices," said Nvidia's Bill Dally in a recent blog. "Denver is the catalyst that will enable these same factors to propel ARM to become pervasive in higher-end systems."
So what's a CPU giant to do in order to show the new kid in town who's boss? Attack from three fronts, starting with the Atom processor. "In 2011, you will also see Atom in a wide array of tablets running three different operating systems: Windows, Android, and MeeGo," Otellini said during the call.
An analyst asked how Android development partners would differentiate between Atom and ARM-based tablets. Otellini responded by saying that Atom-based tablets can run multiple operating systems "which I think is a unique value proposition with Intel."
The second prong of its attack on ARM is Intel's "manufacturing prowess" as described by Otellini. "As we have done for decades in the traditional computing markets, we will apply the world's most advanced silicon transistor technology to these new segments to deliver the lowest power, highest performance, lowest-cost products on the planet," he said.
*creating the worst PC experience you can buy without digging an old PC out of the trash
* cannibalizing sales of real notebooks
* failing to deliver a TDP sufficient for cellphones without clocking them down to 300mhz
Nowhere within there have they created a chip that's faster AND competitive on performance per watt. They have faster chips that consume way too much power, and they have that are semi-competitive on TDP but are not as fast as ARM at the same TDP.
Hmm... Well, my tiny Netbook that lasts 8 hours on a 6 cell battery and fits into my day planner would have to disagree Sting....
Find me any C2D that can do all of that.
Thanks to your competition we can actually afford some of your products these days, otherwise we'd be payink 1k for an atom I'm sure.
Bribery naturally.
In other words..
Intel + ARM = unhappy people with cost/performance ration and power usage.
Unless they somehow take Atom to 10nm intel loses.
Rate me down all you want but i'll always stay +1 i hope.
What you possibly mean is that the ARM microarchitecture will be ARM, but whatever Intel odes withit...they will call it a "pentium"?
Last time I checked a low power Core 2 uses about 20w+ when idle. Atom based on Oak Trail is supposed to use somewhere around 8W max. Quite a difference.
Performance wise, Core 2 will beat Atom. Atom isn't meant for mainstream or high performance. Its mean for UMIDs. Its the reason why Netbooks even exist and it will only get better as Intel goes lower on their process technology.
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4087926/Update-Intel-TSMC-Atom-partnership-on-hold
Not quite. It didn't exactly go through and currently Oak Trail is using Intels 45nm High-K/Metal Gate technology that no one else has been able to get and as well wont have till 32nm with AMDs Bulldozer.
I would imagine that's the state of the art silicon transistor technology that he is talking about since Intel is normally the top of the transistor tech industry. Plus they can always push Atom down to 32nm which will cut power usage down quite a bit. Or skip to 22nm. that would probably devastate the competition though since they can push near 3.8GHz at about 1v.
I don't think Intel will try to crush ARM but more challenge them.
No Intel is still using x86. Just that Atom is their offering in the UMID world and if played right, can challenge ARM which will be betetr for us in the end.
As for new instruction sets, they always make stuff better. Normally they allow the CPU to perform that task better and faster so long as the software takes advantage of the instruction sets.
Lowest forthcoming TDP of an Atom SOC is like 4w, but the thing only runs at like 300mhz
Typical ARM TDP: 1w, and much faster than the above mentioned Atom processor.
Attempting to muscle an inferior design into the market with advanced fab tech is a huge fail re: comparing 65nm Pentium IV to a superior 90nm Athlon 64. Thank goodness Intel has monopoly money and undue influence on the industry, if AMD had a Larrabee followed by an Atom, they would've already already went under by now.
10nm will not be reached with current semiconductor technology. The practical limit has been placed somewhere around 20 nm.