Moore's Law Is Becoming Irrelevant, Says ARM's Boss

holy_calamity writes "PCs will inevitably shift over to ARM-based chips because efficiency now matters more than gains in raw performance, the CEO of chip designer ARM tells MIT Technology Review. He also says the increasing adoption of ARM-based suppliers is good for innovation (and for prices) because it spurs a competitive environment. 'There’s been a lot more innovation in the world of mobile phones over the last 15-20 years than there has been in the world of PCs.'"

Not built for speed?!?

[ackthpt]

But every newer version of operating systems has more bloat than ever. There must be some corollary to Moore's Law which states successive Operating Systems will still require higher performance, but users will now become accustomed to slower response times.

We could call it the Blort Law.

Efficiency!

[CajunArson]

" efficiency now matters more than gains in raw performance"

Sure, so why don't you start off by telling us why an Exynos Cortex A-15 chip running a web benchmark is using about 8 watts of power, with the display turned off so only SoC power is being measured, while Intel has already demoed a full-blown Haswell running Unigine Heaven at... 8 watts.

So when the miraculous Cortex A-15 uses the same amount of power as the supposedly "bloated" x86 Haswell, while Haswell is running a benchmark that is massively more intensive than a web-browser test, who is really making the most "efficient" platform?

Exynos Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6422/samsung-chromebook-xe303-review-testing-arms-cortex-a15/7 [anandtech.com]
Haswell Demo Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKvVdhkgAxg [youtube.com]

Not So Sure About That

[medv4380]

Efficiency only really matters when supply is limited. On a cell phone or any portable system power is limited, and improvement in power efficiency will extend battery life. ARM is a good option when it comes to things like a tablet, but when you start to do everything an Intel styles chip can do they start to get more tricky. Sure ARM probably has a lower floor so it's minimum power usage is a lot lower, but when you start having it do everything in the same time span as an x86_64 does then it starts to look too similar to actually matter. Unless using an ARM processor can save me well over 500 bucks a year on my power bill I don't see their efficiency as actually that much of an advantage.

Re:Duh

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Since 80386. :-) I wonder what would have happened had Archimedes actually succeeded in the market. In those days, it was faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient than the 80386 PCs. Perhaps a better performance differential than just those 3x (?) would have helped. Or perhaps not.

a moped is like a Harley

[epine]

To me a PC is really just a smartphone in another form factor.

I think we need some expert analysis on this one.

All this was inspired by the principle--which is quite true within itself--that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying.

The PC is used to create content. A smartphone is used to consume content. The PC functions autonomously (in a pinch). The smartphone is permanently welded to its cloud-nipple. The PC brings you smart ideas in shabby attire. The smartphone brings you shabby ideas in smart attire. The PC discourages walled gardens. A smartphone never leaves home without one.

Wake me up when my smartphone comes with a holographic projector capable of conjuring up 40" of viewing pleasure at a comfortable focal plane, and either a haptic keyboard (gravitational hologram?) or a brainstem feed a million times better than Swype.

Next we'll declare that mopeds and Harleys are the same form factor because there are more Asians than balding fat men. Clearly a modped is more like a Harley than a smartphone is like a PC.