ARM Goes 64-Bit With Its New ARMv8 Chip Architecture 156
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samzenpus
from the new-and-improved dept.
from the new-and-improved dept.
angry tapir writes "In less than a decade, a microprocessor core could be no bigger than a red blood cell, the CTO of ARM has predicted. ARM has already helped develop a prototype, implantable device for monitoring eye-pressure in glaucoma patients that measures just 1 cubic millimeter, CTO Mike Muller said at ARM's TechCon conference. At the conference the company also introduced its first 64-bit chip. The ARMv8 adds 64-bit addressing capabilities, an improvement over the current ARMv7-A architecture, which is capable of up to 40-bit addressing. The architecture puts ARM into more direct competition with Intel and its 64-bit Xeon processors."
BS (Score:4, Insightful)
> "The architecture puts ARM into more direct competition with Intel and its 64-bit Xeon processors."
Who is writing and editing this BS? It is not in any way putting ARM in competition with Xeon CPUs. It is becoming a serious contender for low end CPUs: Atom, Pentium, Athlon, and it is getting more interesting for streaming and massive threading applications (like the SPARC T).
Direct Competition? (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe I've just got a certain prejudice, but I don't see any direct comparison, let alone competition, between ARM processors and Xeon processors, no matter how wide their addressing is. ARM processors run some really sophistocated stuff ... in my smartphone. A Xeon processor allows my CAD workstation to handle 3D models with thousands of components, or run an ANSYS simulation that solves the equivalent of 10 million simultaneous equations.
Re:Really needed? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd expect it within 5 years, which seems to be the rough time-frame in which ARM expects the first of these CPUs to be built. This is just the architecture announcement. They need to get it out there so people can begin building tools, etc. There's barely enough time to get all that work done in time before this becomes a serious handicap for ARM, so that's my definition of soon.