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On Ubuntu with an Intel processor I have been very happy with the app ecosystem. I suspect if the Raspberry p Pi had an AMD or Intel chip it'd be less painful.

by abnry 6y ago

lioeters 6y ago
Your comment made me curious why ARM architecture was chosen for the Raspberry Pi. The following from Wikipedia explained it: > Processors that have a RISC architecture typically require fewer transistors than those with a complex instruction set computing (CISC) architecture (such as the x86 processors found in most personal computers), which improves cost, power consumption, and heat dissipation. > These characteristics are desirable for light, portable, battery-powered devices — including smartphones, laptops and tablet computers, and other embedded systems — but are also useful for servers and desktops to some degree. For supercomputers, which consume large amounts of electricity, ARM is also a power-efficient solution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture Power efficiency seems to be one of the big reasons why Macs will have ARM processors. > Current ARM processors are also often more power-efficient, which helps with battery life. Switching to ARM is expected to let Apple reduce its processor costs by 40 to 60 percent. https://www.bloomberg.com./news/articles/2020-04-23/apple-aims-to-sell-macs-with-its-own-chips-starting-in-2021 https://www.bloomberg.com./news/articles/2020-04-23/apple-ai...
- hajile 6y ago
  It was a lot more basic than that. They already had contacts at Broadcom. When a client orders N chips, you make some percentage more just in case something happens with binning. Their deal to buy those excess chips got them a sweetheart deal they couldn't have gotten without ordering millions of units (they also couldn't have gotten it without contacts though). Now they're big enough to make their own orders and even their own chip designs and it's inertia because changing requires a lot of money for new firmware and software changes. Changing would increase device cost for at least a could of cycles. On the x86 front, they're simply never going to get that good of a deal with AMD or Intel.

On Ubuntu with an Intel processor I have been very happy with the app ecosystem. I suspect if the Raspberry p Pi had an AMD or Intel chip it'd be less painful.

by abnry 6y ago

On Ubuntu with an Intel processor I have been very happy with the app ecosystem. I suspect if the Raspberry p Pi had an AMD or Intel chip it'd be less painful.

lioeters 6y ago

Your comment made me curious why ARM architecture was chosen for the Raspberry Pi. The following from Wikipedia explained it: > Processors that have a RISC architecture typically require fewer transistors than those with a complex instruction set computing (CISC) architecture (such as the x86 processors found in most personal computers), which improves cost, power consumption, and heat dissipation. > These characteristics are desirable for light, portable, battery-powered devices — including smartphones, laptops and tablet computers, and other embedded systems — but are also useful for servers and desktops to some degree. For supercomputers, which consume large amounts of electricity, ARM is also a power-efficient solution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture Power efficiency seems to be one of the big reasons why Macs will have ARM processors. > Current ARM processors are also often more power-efficient, which helps with battery life. Switching to ARM is expected to let Apple reduce its processor costs by 40 to 60 percent. https://www.bloomberg.com./news/articles/2020-04-23/apple-aims-to-sell-macs-with-its-own-chips-starting-in-2021 https://www.bloomberg.com./news/articles/2020-04-23/apple-ai...

hajile 6y ago
It was a lot more basic than that. They already had contacts at Broadcom. When a client orders N chips, you make some percentage more just in case something happens with binning. Their deal to buy those excess chips got them a sweetheart deal they couldn't have gotten without ordering millions of units (they also couldn't have gotten it without contacts though). Now they're big enough to make their own orders and even their own chip designs and it's inertia because changing requires a lot of money for new firmware and software changes. Changing would increase device cost for at least a could of cycles. On the x86 front, they're simply never going to get that good of a deal with AMD or Intel.