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[Iggy]

Its going to be hard to argue the case for ARM devices under Windows 8 with hardware like this.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/embed.../g-series.aspx

[psxphill]

Originally Posted by Iggy

Its going to be hard to argue the case for ARM devices under Windows 8 with hardware like this.

http://www.amd.com/us/products/embed.../g-series.aspx

Intel have similar hardware, although ARM is still likely to have benefits in cost, heat & weight.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by psxphill

Intel have similar hardware, although ARM is still likely to have benefits in cost, heat & weight.

cost? probably
heat and weight? not really

Intel? Their integrated graphics don't compare.

Remember, we're talking about compact devices (tablets, PDAs, phones) with X86 compatibility and DX11 graphics.
ARM devices running Win8 won't be software compatible with X86 devices.
For that compatibility, I'd pay a little more.

[minator]

Originally Posted by Iggy

cost? probably
heat and weight? not really

Did you look at the specs in the product brief?

You need 2 chips, the slowest part (1 core @ 615MHz) with the I/O hub is rated at 10.4 W. There are quad-core ARMs at 1.4GHz+ in shipping devices at well under 1/2 of that.

Remember, we're talking about compact devices (tablets, PDAs, phones) with X86 compatibility and DX11 graphics.

How much x86 software is there for tablets?
There's a reason MS did Metro. Tablets need a completely different interface.
None of you x86 software is written for this interface.

If you want x86 and DX11 in a tablet I think you'll be stuck with Intel for some time yet. Though you will be getting DX11 from mobile GPUs soon.

[ferrellsl]

@minator

Well, you're wrong there. I have an Acer Iconia Tab W500 that I bought over a year ago. It uses an AMD APU and it runs Windows 7 and Android-X86 just fine and the touchscreen works beautifully. Acer did a great job of writing the middleware that integrates the touchscreen into Windows 7. It's also using DX11. So yes, there's a ton of software for it, best of both worlds actually. And I can boot into Android from the SD card slot so I don't have to modify the internal SSD at all.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by ferrellsl

@minator

Well, you're wrong there. I have an Acer Iconia Tab W500 that I bought over a year ago. It uses an AMD APU and it runs Windows 7 and Android-X86 just fine and the touchscreen works beautifully. Acer did a great job of writing the middleware that integrates the touchscreen into Windows 7. It's also using DX11. So yes, there's a ton of software for it, best of both worlds actually. And I can boot into Android from the SD card slot so I don't have to modify the internal SSD at all.

Thanks. I wasn't aware that anything that cool already existed.

As to the supposed advantage an ARM processor would have in computing power, all the benchmark I've been able to run indicated that X86 processors outperform ARM processors at comparable speeds. A small speed disadvantage isn't going to significantly impact the X86 products.
We'll have to see how the A15 performs.
And yes, I do consider X86 software compatibility significant. After all, what version of UAE is the most feature packed?

As ARM struggles upward to compete on new fronts, X86 is being shrunk to compete in ARM market.

Having already had my ass handed to me in the 80's when I supported 68K platforms, I'm not ready to risk picking a losing side again.