News Qualcomm teases 1.5GHz ARM

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/08/16/qualcomm-teases-1-5ghz-arm/1

 

"Do you think that ARM can ever challenge x86 outside of specialist areas"

They shouldnt even try to play in the sharks playground......ARM is a great British success story and its achieved its success by being highly specialised and doing things better than everyone else in its field.

If it tries to step on Intel's and AMD's toes, they will use every dirty trick in the book to bring it down or take it over.....and Britian will lose yet another technological world beater.

 

All we need now is an ARM build of windows.

 

do ARM even have an x86 license? if they dont then they wont be getting one (same reason nvidia wont ever be getting one).

 

ARM is an alternative to x86, they don't need a license

 

I love to see companies like this doing well.

 

It's only natural for ARM to be expanding its reach, especially as intel tries to expand into their core market. As it stands a 1.5Ghz dual core ARM processor sounds more appealing than Atom - especially if coupled with a good Linux distro.

 

I really hope ARM can expand - PowerPC is dead, SPARC is dead outside of six figure machines.. It would be fun to be able to buy something like an ARM based PC that isn't just a Wal-mart $100 netbook running Windows CE.

 

it would be nice to have an arm cpu in a laptop, intel cpu's are still too resource hunfry for current battery technology

most laptops only have a 5 hour battery life, that means i would be stuck next to a power plug when ever i want to use it, like most people i forget to charge things like my phone and i do it all the time

 

I too would love to get my hands on a cheap ARM based PC. Extremely low power yet able to run 1080p? HELL YEAH!

 

They just need Windows, really wish they could sort a deal out with Microsoft. Entry into the netbook space a couple of years ago would have made ARM for good.

 

Gareth, can you clarifty a couple things please? First, when they say Q4 do they mean the actual year ie October-December or the financial year ie Feb-April? Also, is this when the chips will be available to manufacturers or when we're likely to see them in consumer devices? Cheers.

To those worried about ARM stepping on Intel's toes, you probably don't need to. Remember, ARM is different to other CPU companies in that they don't actually make the chips, they just design them. As such, they'd probably only seriously invest in a design that would compete with a strong Intel chip if one of their customers wanted them to, and I'm sure they'd have their customer pay for a good chunk of the R&D first. Thus, even if it failed it would be their customer who takes most of the loss. The other way it might work would be if their customer licensed their design and adapted it themselves, but again ARM wouldn't bear much of the risk there either.

 

I know, but if they dont have an x86 license then its tough for them to step on Intel/AMDs toes. if anything it would be the other way round.

 

Given the massive degree of cross-licensing on everything IN ADDITION to x86 it would be impossible. The only thing stopping ARM becoming wildly popular is Microsoft not recoding Windows for ARM, which it could do, but won't due to drivers and its commitment to Phone series/CE based OS. Also drivers - have you ever seen ARM drivers available?

 

If I remember the recent Via article right, it's only Intel, AMD and Via that have X86 licenses.

Is anyone besides me worried about how crap the battery life on most smartphones is? A dual core 1.5GHz CPU won't help things.

 

Correct about x86 license, but with the recent Intel settlement the odds tip heavily in favor of The Green Goblin either buying out VIA or entering into some IP agreement in which (somehow) they will incorporate x86 into their products, or their GPUs into VIA products.


As for smartphones, don't expect it until the 28nm shrink. Last I heard, getting 28nm ARM products out for Qualcomm was GlobalFoundries number one priority, so expect it not long after the release of this product.

 

I think ARM could do really well in the HTPC arena.

 

ARM IS AN ARCHITECTURE NOT A CHIP VENDOR

ARM cannot have x86 support because they are essentially mutually exclusive. It's like saying "can a PS3 play XBox 360 games, all it needs is a license"

Qualcomm, for example, is a manufacturer that has an ARM license.

Via, for example, is a manufacturer that has an ARM and an x86 license. They can't *yet* use one chip to run both instruction sets.