PC Thoughts

[andrewducker]

Considering the success of Linux laptops like the Eee, how long until someone brings out a non-x86 variant?

Are there processors out there that would be as faster, cheaper and more power-efficient?

Comments

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

What nobody else has mentioned is Apple's acquisition of P.A. Semi. Rumour has it that Apple are hoping to use the company to build custom chips for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which are both platforms with a lot of potential.

[andrewducker]

True - and both can run whatever silicon they feel like, as Apple has total control over the software.

[andrewducker]

Of course, the iPhone is already running an ARM design, so I wouldn't expect that to change...

[call-waiting.livejournal.com]

The fact that the iPhone is currently running on an ARM likely implies the opposite -- it implies that enough of the kernel and the platform are architecture-neutral that they won't necessarily be tied to any particular architecture.

The small-laptop/large-MID space is an interesting one, as it's a space that's essentially being converged upon from two different directions by two different processor architectures: ARM from the mobile device sector (cheap, power-efficient), and Intel from the portable PC market. There isn't quite an overlap: ARMs are still cheaper and more efficient, and Silverthorne (Atom) is still quite a bit faster, more expensive and power-hungry.

As for the actual processor architecture, as distinct from implementations of the architecture, there's really no significant amount of code that's architecture-specific in Open Source code, and likewise Mac OS: we already know there are ports for x86, POWER and ARM; presumably porting to a different architecture would be almost as trivial for Apple as it is for Linux.

Which is to say, the only thing that's really tied to any particular architecture is Windows, and even then sons of Windows CE are happy on ARM, MIPS etc. And so matter how much we all claim to loathe it, Windows will be the thing that keeps x86's edge over ARM keen: because it will be a market requirement more than a technical requirement.

Hey, you know, some crazy-ass people might even try to build such a machine on a Blackfin.