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I hope that once we have quad core 2.5 Ghz Cortex A15 chips (probably next year), ARM will also start focusing on lowering power consumption after that, or at l

I hope that once we have quad core 2.5 Ghz Cortex A15 chips (probably next year), ARM will also start focusing on lowering power consumption after that, or at least split the product line in 2: one that continues to double up the performance every year, while maintaining the same TDP, like they do now, and one where they maintain the performance, but cut the power consumption in half every year. That kind of performance should be more than enough for smartphones, and probably even tablets, though I could see how we might need more on clamshells. But by having a product line that focuses on lowering power consumption every year, while maintaining the performance will also ensure Intel will never catch-up with them in chips with extremely low energy consumption, and in the same time our smartphones will start lasting more and more.

wtallis 15y ago
ARM already has that strategy in place. They don't stop licensing the A8 core when the A9 MPCore hits the market. They're perfectly willing to let you produce an A8 on 22nm silicon if that's what provides the power/performance balance you want. You should take a look at the full list of cores offered by ARM; there's a lot you won't have heard of if you only pay attention to the flagship phones and tablets.
Someone 15y ago
", or at least split the product line in 2: one that continues to double up the performance every year, while maintaining the same TDP, like they do now, and one where they maintain the performance, but cut the power consumption in half every year." That is more of a tactic than a strategy. After 3-odd years, there would be a 10 times performance difference between the 'fast' and the 'cool' lines. Chances are there is room between them. Also, I think is more economical to produce old designs at new technologies for the 'cool' line than to design new 'cool' chips from scratch. That would likely get you 90% of the goal for 10% of the costs. That 90% probably is sufficient, too, as CPU power usage typically is only a fraction of system power usage. I think that applies even to most embedded stuff for which an ARM is appropriate (ignoring on-chip audio and video decoding hardware)

wtallis 15y ago

ARM already has that strategy in place. They don't stop licensing the A8 core when the A9 MPCore hits the market. They're perfectly willing to let you produce an A8 on 22nm silicon if that's what provides the power/performance balance you want. You should take a look at the full list of cores offered by ARM; there's a lot you won't have heard of if you only pay attention to the flagship phones and tablets.

Someone 15y ago

", or at least split the product line in 2: one that continues to double up the performance every year, while maintaining the same TDP, like they do now, and one where they maintain the performance, but cut the power consumption in half every year." That is more of a tactic than a strategy. After 3-odd years, there would be a 10 times performance difference between the 'fast' and the 'cool' lines. Chances are there is room between them. Also, I think is more economical to produce old designs at new technologies for the 'cool' line than to design new 'cool' chips from scratch. That would likely get you 90% of the goal for 10% of the costs. That 90% probably is sufficient, too, as CPU power usage typically is only a fraction of system power usage. I think that applies even to most embedded stuff for which an ARM is appropriate (ignoring on-chip audio and video decoding hardware)