5 ms·

Can we step back and marvel at the absurdity that one of the most powerful CPUs ever created was for a phone?

chrisseaton 6y ago
But these devices aren’t ‘phones’ any more are they? That’s disingenuous. They’re hugely powerful general purpose computing devices - many people’s primary computing device if you go outside the tech bubble. They do compute intensive tasks like photo manipulation, on-line video editing, grading, and compression, they do face detection, depth estimation, etc etc. I don’t know why people still say ‘wow all this for a telephone’ like all it does is make analog phone calls.
- JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
  Because it fits in your hand and runs on a battery and is called a phone. iPhone As an aside, I was wondering what things does the iPhone 12 do that can even begin to tax all this horespower?
  - manderley 6y ago
    I assume there are some games that can utilize the power.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    Right - 'one of the most powerful CPUs ever created was for a phone' sounds funny, so to get your head around it think instead 'one of the most powerful CPUs ever created was for a miniaturised 4k on-line editing suite and live broadcast system' and it doesn't sound so absurd anymore does it?
- murukesh_s 6y ago
  its a shame we can't 'dock' em to a larger monitor to do desktop work yet. There are attempts by few players, but if Apple can do that it would be another revolution..
  - nullify88 6y ago
    I was pretty excited about Linux on DeX for Samsung devices since it had a capable CPU but unfortunately they discontinued it when Android 10 was released.
    - perryizgr8 6y ago
      The standard dex is also quite capable. You can install terminals which have all the standard utils. I was even able to run vs code.
vnorilo 6y ago
From a device class where the newly all-important perf per watt was always the north star, in a market with the largest chip volume, by a company with ample margins and mountains of cash? Does not seem all that absurd :)
- murukesh_s 6y ago
  yea it's *the world largest company (by market capitalisation), whose main product is their flagship mobile and whose main differentiator is the CPU (almost everything else is beaten or available in competing products like Camera, number of apps etc). The moment the CPU performance falls below Android devices, people will look at iPhones differently.. iOS is a differentiator but doesn't have the x factor to make iPhones justify the premium tag.
  - temac 6y ago
    I suspect for the majority of buyers the differentiator is the logo, then the OS, then maybe the CPU.
    - konschubert 6y ago
      The logo alone wears off after a few years.
  - jclardy 6y ago
    CPU speeds have been similar to competitors until around the A10 era a few years ago. The real differentiator has always been software + hardware integration happening inside the same company. The hardware team gets the insight of the software team on what areas of performance should be looked at, and the software team can optimize for the exact specifications of a future CPU line.
    - murukesh_s 6y ago
      i thought Apple crushed other chipset in single core and managed to stay ahead in overall. https://www.phonearena.com/news/apple-a14-vs-a13-vs-snapdragon-865-performance-comparison_id128439#:~:text=The%20single%2Dcore%20performance%20of,big%20cores%20at%203.1GHz https://www.phonearena.com/news/apple-a14-vs-a13-vs-snapdrag....
quattrofan 6y ago
It's an ultra portable computer that for most people less than a majority of it's time will be used as a phone.
hombre_fatal 6y ago
It's not absurd at all, nor surprising that the most power efficient chip was compelled by the most portable general computing device. Plugged-in desktop computers certainly weren't going to bring us here. This just sounds like "DAE think phone=bad XD" anti-intellectualism.
- JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
  I think people are misconstruing what I am saying here. I said marvel at it. It's crazy that a handheld battery powered device has one of the greatest processors in the history of human existence in it.
faitswulff 6y ago
If you were used to using mainframes, you could have said much the same thing about desktop CPUs in the 90s. "That tiny thing doesn't even fill up a room!"

But these devices aren’t ‘phones’ any more are they? That’s disingenuous. They’re hugely powerful general purpose computing devices - many people’s primary computing device if you go outside the tech bubble. They do compute intensive tasks like photo manipulation, on-line video editing, grading, and compression, they do face detection, depth estimation, etc etc. I don’t know why people still say ‘wow all this for a telephone’ like all it does is make analog phone calls.

JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
Because it fits in your hand and runs on a battery and is called a phone. iPhone As an aside, I was wondering what things does the iPhone 12 do that can even begin to tax all this horespower?
- manderley 6y ago
  I assume there are some games that can utilize the power.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  Right - 'one of the most powerful CPUs ever created was for a phone' sounds funny, so to get your head around it think instead 'one of the most powerful CPUs ever created was for a miniaturised 4k on-line editing suite and live broadcast system' and it doesn't sound so absurd anymore does it?
murukesh_s 6y ago
its a shame we can't 'dock' em to a larger monitor to do desktop work yet. There are attempts by few players, but if Apple can do that it would be another revolution..
- nullify88 6y ago
  I was pretty excited about Linux on DeX for Samsung devices since it had a capable CPU but unfortunately they discontinued it when Android 10 was released.
  - perryizgr8 6y ago
    The standard dex is also quite capable. You can install terminals which have all the standard utils. I was even able to run vs code.

vnorilo 6y ago

From a device class where the newly all-important perf per watt was always the north star, in a market with the largest chip volume, by a company with ample margins and mountains of cash? Does not seem all that absurd :)

murukesh_s 6y ago
yea it's *the world largest company (by market capitalisation), whose main product is their flagship mobile and whose main differentiator is the CPU (almost everything else is beaten or available in competing products like Camera, number of apps etc). The moment the CPU performance falls below Android devices, people will look at iPhones differently.. iOS is a differentiator but doesn't have the x factor to make iPhones justify the premium tag.
- temac 6y ago
  I suspect for the majority of buyers the differentiator is the logo, then the OS, then maybe the CPU.
  - konschubert 6y ago
    The logo alone wears off after a few years.
- jclardy 6y ago
  CPU speeds have been similar to competitors until around the A10 era a few years ago. The real differentiator has always been software + hardware integration happening inside the same company. The hardware team gets the insight of the software team on what areas of performance should be looked at, and the software team can optimize for the exact specifications of a future CPU line.
  - murukesh_s 6y ago
    i thought Apple crushed other chipset in single core and managed to stay ahead in overall. https://www.phonearena.com/news/apple-a14-vs-a13-vs-snapdragon-865-performance-comparison_id128439#:~:text=The%20single%2Dcore%20performance%20of,big%20cores%20at%203.1GHz https://www.phonearena.com/news/apple-a14-vs-a13-vs-snapdrag....

quattrofan 6y ago

It's an ultra portable computer that for most people less than a majority of it's time will be used as a phone.

hombre_fatal 6y ago

It's not absurd at all, nor surprising that the most power efficient chip was compelled by the most portable general computing device. Plugged-in desktop computers certainly weren't going to bring us here. This just sounds like "DAE think phone=bad XD" anti-intellectualism.

JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
I think people are misconstruing what I am saying here. I said marvel at it. It's crazy that a handheld battery powered device has one of the greatest processors in the history of human existence in it.

faitswulff 6y ago

If you were used to using mainframes, you could have said much the same thing about desktop CPUs in the 90s. "That tiny thing doesn't even fill up a room!"