5 ms·
How far are we from just having very nice and power efficient arm computers and laptops? I don't care about the X86 legacy, if I want something there I can simp
by fb03 5y ago
How far are we from just having very nice and power efficient arm computers and laptops? I don't care about the X86 legacy, if I want something there I can simply buy a machine with that processor.
I just want a beefy ATX form factor PC or even a laptop with "standard components" that can run Linux and maybe some light office work or gaming.
Is this asking too much? Why are we still using X86 on the !OSX stuff?
- phyalow 5y agoM1 arm64 Macbooks exist and are incredible.
- pjmlp 5y agoFor those that happen to live in first world countries or have the luck to have their employer sponsor their work laptops.
- XCSme 5y agoAn M1 Macbook Air is 900euros, not a lot more than a similar specs Windows laptop.
- pjmlp 5y agoMost people are just fine with a 300 euro Windows laptop. 900 euros can be several months of salary in less fortunate countries.
- XCSme 5y agoI understand, but in that case I don't think we should compare/expect state of the art technology and build quality in that price range (unless there are specific discounts/incentives for those regions). I think that the point of your initial comment was not related to the subject, which was more about the performance part than the pricing part.
- lostlogin 5y ago> !OSX stuff Though I’ve been messing about with emulation and it’s fine.
- pjmlp 5y agoBecause the majority of the world cares about their binaries.
- mhh__ 5y agoHow could you tell when they have no option to switch to? Emulation has been done successfully for decades.
- pjmlp 5y agoApparently not successfully enough to move people away from Intel en mass.
- terafo 5y agoIf it's done well it is successful. Rosetta 2 is great and it works while Windows emulation sucks for various reasons(for example it wasn't possible to run 64 bit apps until one year ago). The problem is that not enough companies are interested in doing it well.
- mhh__ 5y agoTo where? The chips only started existing with M1. No one has actually had an attractive processor unless you either count Itanium being good on some workloads or maybe some RISC machines a very very long time ago.
- mdp2021 5y ago> [still using X86] because the majority of the world cares about their binaries Could you please elaborate?
- perihelions 5y agoThinkpad is starting an ARM line in May, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30497616 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30497616 ("Lenovo announces the first Arm-based ThinkPad", 248 comments)
- schaefer 5y agoMan, I hope those get official Linux support. :)
- rnantes 5y agoThe 2023 Nuvia based Qualcomm Laptop SOCs are coming in 2023 and could bring M1-Like performance to windows. https://www.anandtech.com/show/17075/qualcomm-x-nuvia-silicon-sampling-in-late-2022-products-in-2023 https://www.anandtech.com/show/17075/qualcomm-x-nuvia-silico...
- gjsman-1000 5y agoRemember though that Qualcomm also claimed their first-gen 8cx with Windows offered performance competitive with a mobile Core i5 - though this was laughed out of the room when reviewers got it.
- refulgentis 5y agoAstonishingly close...very quietly, because it requires a spectrum of indepth knowledge across Android x Apple ecosystems...the mid-range Android phone chip maker, MediaTek, has a chip that beats Intel 11th gen and M1. (not the fancier M1s like the "duct tape two together" for Mac Studio). 2 years out, you're looking at a real shift, presuming QC's acquisition of the Apple diaspora's desktop ARM cpu startup goes well. (I presume nothing when it comes to QC)
- marcodiego 5y ago> MediaTek, has a chip that beats Intel 11th gen and M1. Sincerely interested. Please provide source.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- fabrice_d 5y agoWhich MTK SoC are you referring to?
- secondcoming 5y agoWhat have Android and Apple got to do with arm desktop machines?
- tcmart14 5y agoI am guessing it is due to Apple and Android are the companies/software stacks that are putting arm devices in people's hands.
- tyingq 5y agoI'm guessing it's much easier for Apple since they do one set of drivers for chip peripherals/bridges/etc, one way of doing boot, bios setup, etc. In the generic PC space, the operating systems have to deal with however each manufacturer chooses to do things. So it's harder for any one manufacturer to get enough leverage with Microsoft and Linux to support their devices.
- 10000truths 5y agoIt would be nice if every manufacturer adhered to a standard interface specification, like NVME, but for network adapters, video cards, audio, etc. So that one set of drivers would work for any combination of parts. It would greatly democratize OS development.
- baybal2 5y ago
- mhh__ 5y agoApple spend decades building up to being ready for the apple silicon switch. The IP simply isn't there at the moment in the high performance space. Arm know it works now, so maybe they can go bigger.
- perfopt 5y agoApple hit it well and truely out of the park with their M1 and follow ons. No other company makes their own CPU cores. They license them from ARM. I suppose Qcomm or NVIDIA could take an ARM core and make a great Laptop/Desktop SoC but I think they dont have the capability to do so. Also, IBM established and propagated the PC standard. That was adopted by many others. While there is a ARM standard for servers that is just started to gain some traction there is no Desktop/Laptop standard spec.