ARM Stealthily Rising As a Low-End Contender

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Neil McAllister examines how the ongoing rise of netbooks, decline of desktops, and the smartphone explosion are reconfiguring the processor market, putting Intel's Atom processor on a clear collision course with ARM. And here, on the low end of computing, Intel may have finally met its match. Thanks to a unique licensing model, ARM will ship an estimated 90 chips per second this year, and the catalog of OSes and apps available for ARM has been growing for decades, including several complete Linux distributions such as Google's Android OS and Chrome OS when it ships. 'One thing ARM doesn't have, however, is Windows,' McAllister writes, something that could ultimately stymie ARM's plans to compete on the low end of the netbook market. And yet Intel's bet on Windows and its x86 compatibility appeal among developers could backfire, McAllister writes. In the end, it's all about performance. Thus far, Intel has yet to demonstrate a model with power characteristics comparable to those of the current generation of ARM chips, which are fast proving their ability to handle high-performance applications."

Comments

Competition

[mhajicek]

Still, competitors claim it's mostly 'armless.

Re:I Must be Getting Old

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

As it happens, that would have been a perfectly cogent headline a few years back, had we been bothering to pay attention.

I'll take three, thanks

[Anonymous Coward]

" 'One thing ARM doesn't have, however, is Windows,' McAllister writes"

I'm sold.

Windows is too expensive for ARM

[Cro Magnon]

Everyone knows it costs an ARM and a LEG.

Re:MAME on ARM in Debian

[The Archon V2.0]

My SheevaPlug arrives via Fedex in about 30 minutes :).

how much did it cost you? been looking at getting one myself.

Well, if he doesn't answer in the next 17 minutes, we know we're not gonna hear anything for a few days....

Re:ARM/Linux in the Tesla Roadster

[CAIMLAS]

running Linux kernel 2.6.11.8-1.3.0.

Oh, THAT kernel version! Yes, I know exactly what it means.

I mean, seriously folks. I've been using Linux regularly since '98, on servers since 2000, and almost exclusively for personal use since around 2001. WTF does that kernel version even mean?