Fast processors work by “speculating” — calculating several possible next steps in advance before knowing for sure what the next step will be. Modern Intel chip

Fast processors work by “speculating” — calculating several possible next steps in advance before knowing for sure what the next step will be. Modern Intel chips do this several steps ahead, at multiple levels. It uses more power, because it does work that is ultimately wasted. Large amounts of speculation makes sense for data center CPUs, but not for battery-powered devices.