2 ms·

Here's the thing, it's not just about speed or efficiency, it's also about cost and price. Part of ARM's advantage is that chips are cheap and they have no ince

Here's the thing, it's not just about speed or efficiency, it's also about cost and price. Part of ARM's advantage is that chips are cheap and they have no incentive to support a high margin business that Intel does. Fundamentally, Intel doesn't want to switch everything over to Atom chips because it would ruin the economics of Intel's business. Right now they would much rather sell a i5 at $200 or an i7 at $300+. Compare that to an Atom chip at say $25 per chip. Intel would need to have 10x volume to make the same money. So, while Intel wants to be competitive with ARM, the economics of that business just aren't as attractive as the PC/Server chip business.

ippisl 14y ago
Selling chips for mobile phones doesn't cannibalizes intel's business. Selling chips for tablets might, but at this point in time it would be very risky to think in such a way, and they know this very well. So why hasn't they given their top game for this fight, i.e. offering 22nm mobile/tablet chips ? I think it's because their 22nm is expensive and not very fit to manufacture cheap chips. From what i read, their 22nm tech costs 30%-40% more than using TSMC 28nm (for manufacturing the same parts). Maybe their rising investment in fabs is due to this problem. Another explanation would be that they are planning a coordinated attack: better atom and an LTE chip using a 14nm process. That combination might let them seriously decrease power over competitors. And doing that in bang has strategic value of creating pressure/fear over mobile handset makers and carriers to accept their new design, or be left out.