For many years, there were a multitude of different architectures, and all of them were supported by major software developers. Over time the number has gotten smaller and smaller, the only one used in typical desktop computers anymore is the x86 (mainly thanks to Intel investing mountains of money into the manufacturing process). Unfortunately for Intel, manufacturing isn't the advantage it once was: AMD is still able to compete with them moderately well even when they've been a generation behind in man
Going into the future, we are going to see more ARM based netbooks (and they are going to be more usable), and the already common ARM handheld device is going to become more powerful.
Can you amplify on this? I tried an intel-based netbook recently and was pretty dismayed at the performance. I have an ARM-based music server running Linux, and although it's fine for the purpose I'm using it for, it feels agonizingly slow when I ssh in and do things on the command line -- I shudder to imagine what it would b
And yet I hear people talking as though ARM-based netbooks will be on the market within a year or something. What am I missing here? Is it all vaporware?
It's ridiculous. People say ARM is so much more power efficient, then forget that they have to emulate x86 because some video codec isn't written for ARM. A big reason people bought linux netbooks was to put bootleg Windows on them, to run Windows apps. Windows has like 90% of the netbook market now. ARM would have to be ten times better architecture than x86 to even make a dent in netbooks, and it's barely even 1.12 times better.
Hell, as phones get even more powerful we'll probably see the opposite...
Change in the wind.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:4, Interesting)
Can you amplify on this? I tried an intel-based netbook recently and was pretty dismayed at the performance. I have an ARM-based music server running Linux, and although it's fine for the purpose I'm using it for, it feels agonizingly slow when I ssh in and do things on the command line -- I shudder to imagine what it would b
Re: (Score:-1, Troll)
And yet I hear people talking as though ARM-based netbooks will be on the market within a year or something. What am I missing here? Is it all vaporware?
It's ridiculous. People say ARM is so much more power efficient, then forget that they have to emulate x86 because some video codec isn't written for ARM. A big reason people bought linux netbooks was to put bootleg Windows on them, to run Windows apps. Windows has like 90% of the netbook market now. ARM would have to be ten times better architecture than x86 to even make a dent in netbooks, and it's barely even 1.12 times better.
Hell, as phones get even more powerful we'll probably see the opposite...
Re:Change in the wind.... (Score:3, Insightful)