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ARM — Heretic In the Church of Intel, Moore's Law

ericatcw writes "For 30+ years, the PC industry has been as obsessed with under-the-hood performance: MIPs, MHz, transistors per chip. Blame Moore's Law, which effectively laid down the Gospel of marketing PCs like sports cars. But with mobile PCs and green computing coming to the fore, enter ARM, which is challenging the Gospel according to Moore with chips that are low-powered in both senses of the word. Some of its most popular CPUs have 100,000 transistors, fewer than a 12 MHz Intel 286 CPU from 1982 (download PDF). But they also consume as little as a quarter of a watt, which is why netbook makers are embracing them. It's 'megahertz per milli-watt,' that counts, according to ARM exec Ian Drew, who predicts that 6-10 ARM-based netbooks running Linux and costing just around $200 should arrive this year starting in July."

14 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. Only 6-10? by Scutter · · Score: 5, Funny

    What happens when those 6-10 netbooks get sold? What about the rest of us? Seems like it's hardly worth it to build so few. They should be building them by the thousands!

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    "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
    1. Re:Only 6-10? by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 5, Funny

      What happens when those 6-10 netbooks get sold? What about the rest of us?

      "I think there is a world market for maybe five netbooks." - The ghost of Thomas Watson

  2. Rocks don't use any electricity. by tjstork · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe we should make computers out of them. In fact, they did...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_abacus

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    This is my sig.
    1. Re:Rocks don't use any electricity. by ksattic · · Score: 4, Funny
  3. Re:a quarter of a watt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ARMs powered by legs...

    I like your idea and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

  4. Incomplete quote by MeanMF · · Score: 2, Funny

    That last quote in the summary should read "...6-10 ARM-based netbooks running Linux and costing just around $200 should arrive this year starting in July and be done booting up sometime in early August"

  5. Re:1982?!!??! by rackserverdeals · · Score: 4, Funny

    Psssssttttt! Wanna guess what I'm typing this post with?

    Your fingers.

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    Dual Opteron < $600
  6. Re:Nonsense. by AuMatar · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not really. Brains don't spontaneously explode.

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    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  7. Re:Horsepower by simcop2387 · · Score: 4, Funny

    what do you mean a 500hp engine in a golf cart is pointless? how else will i beat my ball to the green to watch it land?

  8. Re:Nonsense. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Go back much less than a couple hundred years and people believed in all sorts of weird things, like industrial activity angering the weather god, and spirits turning monkeys into men, and a really big magic bang.

  9. Re:1982?!!??! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Aw, how innocent you are.

  10. Re:1982?!!??! by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Funny

    Psssssttttt! Wanna guess what I'm typing this post with?

    Your arm?

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    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  11. Re:Nonsense. by jimmydevice · · Score: 5, Funny

    Religion, politics, benchmarks, the check is in the mail, I won't cum in your mouth.

  12. Re:Nonsense. by mattrumpus · · Score: 3, Funny

    Go back a couple of hundred minutes and people believed everything was created by a big man in the sky!!

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    Who's with me?! I SAID... WHO'S WITH ME!!??