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They say that the micro is overkill for a smartphone, I'm saying that Marvell is not in that business. This are two complete different story. Look at current S

They say that the micro is overkill for a smartphone, I'm saying that Marvell is not in that business. This are two complete different story. Look at current Symbian hw (nokia) and you'll see that for them even Cortex-A8 (the core of current and previous iPhone generations) is overkill. ARM itself is targeting the Cortex-A15 in his single and dual cores implementation to smarphones. And the core is only half (or less) of the story today. On smartphones the GPU is as important as the core... but this is all another story.

rbanffy 16y ago
I stand corrected. Sorry. Still... Marvell is not in that business, but neither was MOS in the personal computer business when they launched the 6502 ;-) Accidents happen and the wildest things become real. Besides that, this level of performance will be quite mundane two years from now. In a decade, low-end smartphones will have this kind of capability. Not because they need it, but because nobody makes a simpler part anymore.
- pietrofmaggi 16y ago
  Sure, but when the Motorola engineers left to built the 6502 there was no Personal Computer market. The 6502 (its low price) created it. At 25$ it was a bargain against the the Intel 8080 which costs about US$150: http://www.commodore.ca/history/company/mos/mos_technology.htm http://www.commodore.ca/history/company/mos/mos_technology.h...). What about smartphones? they're already here and they're evolving. Is this new chip something new and revolutionary? NO Is it an innovation? YES "In a decade, low-end smartphones will have this kind of capability. Not because they need it, but because nobody makes a simpler part anymore." I'll not put my money on this. In electronics price is king, and for large volumes every dime is important. For example I'll not be surprised to find in my kid's toys some sort of 6502. Phones are now an ARM territory, and the low cost ones will probably stay on ARM7TDMI for a long long time (may be in some speedy versions, around 300-500MHz). BTW thanks for the nice "saturday" conversation. I love HN

rbanffy 16y ago

I stand corrected. Sorry. Still... Marvell is not in that business, but neither was MOS in the personal computer business when they launched the 6502 ;-) Accidents happen and the wildest things become real. Besides that, this level of performance will be quite mundane two years from now. In a decade, low-end smartphones will have this kind of capability. Not because they need it, but because nobody makes a simpler part anymore.

pietrofmaggi 16y ago
Sure, but when the Motorola engineers left to built the 6502 there was no Personal Computer market. The 6502 (its low price) created it. At 25$ it was a bargain against the the Intel 8080 which costs about US$150: http://www.commodore.ca/history/company/mos/mos_technology.htm http://www.commodore.ca/history/company/mos/mos_technology.h...). What about smartphones? they're already here and they're evolving. Is this new chip something new and revolutionary? NO Is it an innovation? YES "In a decade, low-end smartphones will have this kind of capability. Not because they need it, but because nobody makes a simpler part anymore." I'll not put my money on this. In electronics price is king, and for large volumes every dime is important. For example I'll not be surprised to find in my kid's toys some sort of 6502. Phones are now an ARM territory, and the low cost ones will probably stay on ARM7TDMI for a long long time (may be in some speedy versions, around 300-500MHz). BTW thanks for the nice "saturday" conversation. I love HN