Hardware Nvidia announces Project Denver ARM CPU

I want them to succeed with the desktop ARM CPU but I seriously doubt this thing will ever make it to market. Here's why:

1) ARM is specifically made for low power processing. The cores of an ARM are simple and small. In order to make this work they are going to have to change ARM a whole lot. So they are going to be making up all sorts of new stuff for an instruction set that wasn't intended to do what it's doing. That's the same thing Intel had to do with x86. The difference is that Intel has had decades of experience and time in order to do it. Nvidia does not make CPU's they make GPU's and there is a big difference between them. Nvidia will end up with a chip that is much slower and cannot compete with Intel or AMD.

2) Say goodbye to all x86 software because virtualization doesn't work when you change instruction sets. You can only virtualize x86 instructions on x86 hardware - not on ARM hardware. Emulation is too slow to be practical. People who choose to use ARM hardware will be limiting themselves greatly in their software choices. Why change platforms when you have what you want on x86? The broad consumer market won't do it.

3) I believe that Nvidia is not serious about this project in the first place. Nvidia wants to force Intel to give it an x86 license. Nvidia is telling Intel that they are going to compete in the desktop CPU market and make them loose money and possibly the entire desktop/server/HPC market. Well that's what Nvidia wants them to think anyway. If Intel licenses x86 to Nvidia then Intel at least makes a royalty on each x86 Nvidia CPU, instead of making nothing on each ARM CPU. All of the companies involved are on the boat with Nvidia and also want Nvidia to have an x86 license and maybe some want licenses themselves also.

 

the OEM market for Atom is now pretty much evolved from Atom to tablets or (very soon) AMD's Fusion cores. i believe that's where nVidia's aiming at first stage, they cannot compete with desktop level processors. well, not with just an ARM core, i suspect they may be looking at AMD's Fusion approach.

in terms of Tegra, am i right in saying it is a graphics processor IP for SoC's? if right, that makes it same as Imagine Technology's graphics IP's, not the actual SoC products such as Hummingbird/A4. i got the impression that with Denver, nVidia is actually going to make a physical product themselves, rather than relay on other manufacturers to use their IP.

 

ARM Tegra Denver Johhny Utah whatever!

But can a Nvidia Cpu do pi to the umpteenth numeral while running Crysis?

 

No, of course not, but that's the point. Most people, including many of us on Bit, don't have any use for the amount of processor grunt available on the current high end processors. These low powered systems will do everything we need them to do with fewer watts in the whole system than modern CPUs use by themselves. Even the high end games don't come close to using all the resources of a modern mid-range processor.

It could be just that I'm getting to be a cranky old git, but I'm not ready for my computer to be based around my phone. My next computer will probably be a mini-ITX based system, but even now I don't feel like I have any need for a laptop and the idea of web browsing on that tiny little screen is not attractive at all.

As for the future of Intel, I think they may soon find they're the best at making things that nobody wants. We've passed the point of "good enough" and are well into overkill on CPU power. Spending more money on higher powered systems doesn't give you a better experience, just more noise, heat, and a higher power bill. If a low powered uATX or mini-ITX system could do everything that your current system could do, would you not be tempted to go that route?

 

Not quite. Tegra is an ARM-based SOC. The first Zune, at least, ran on a first-gen Tegra. Apparently there will be a port of Ubuntu for Tegra, as well, meaning many swollen nerd e-peens when they have Linux running on a Zune

 

Actually, only the Zune HD uses Tegra chip

 

The Kin series are weeping in fury. They demand your blood.

 

Kin is not a Zune.

 

On the subject of that flame war...





...My nForce 2 worked great...





...After I lapped the heat sink flat and put active cooling on it!

 

I can see nVidia doing very well! and here is why.

1) The power per watt of the ARM is very very impressive.

2) Many ARM chip in phones can do 2x1080p decoding in real time. It was not long-ago that you needed a quad core x86 chip to decode one stream of 1080p without jumping.

3) ARM Cortex A9 chips are already working 2.5Ghz with no active cooling. Hard macro version.

4) ARM chips are held back by slower low power DDR2 Ram 200Mhz – 333Mhz that will change.

5) ARM hardware is fare more area efficient then x86 after all x86 chips a risc chip with a x86 decoder. The ARM dues not need a decoder. More cores per chip

6) ARM was built ground up for multiprocessing. It’s also designed to have new instructions added.

7) Intel graphic chips are well not very good. So it’s going to be AMD that are going to be the main problem for nVidia. I think Intel is going to be in big trouble from All the new ARM chips and AMD new chips. Laptops Net books and servers are going to change soon. I think many people don’t understand how may company’s are backing ARM. ARM also tock on all the Risc chip and won. In the next ten years x86 will be history. Why? Because everyone is making ARM chips except Arm themselves. It’s all about the business model!

 

software support, as others have mentioned is key.

game development as has been mentioned is also key.... HOWEVER do not forget that ARM processors out sells intel and AMD put together , and as far as game company's getting behind them for titles, well, haven't they already done this? I look at some of the games and the graphics on the i phone4 and HTC phones and tbh they are pretty good. looks to me as if publishers are already well versed in ARM platform's and have been writing ARM compatible versions of smiler titles to that of the PC for a while. There maybe be entirely new group's of develops more than keen to produce high quality software titles for an ARM based PC system.. and if they are good enough, we might see x86 platforms wanting 'ports' of game titles from copied over from ARM. It would be nice to see a bit of platform competition again. Its not impossible to come from nowhere and and become a house hold name. Look at sony Playstation. I think people bought them because sony was pretty cool. And I for one think I would buy an ARM cpu under an NVIDIA brand name, because NVIDIA is petty cool. And i don't think i'm the only person who thinks so.

As for ppl still buying 'intel' over 'AMD' as someone said, personally I prefer AMD. And in the early days i never understood hwhy people bought intel when they cost more than AMD and were slower.