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[Iggy]

Originally Posted by takemehomegrandma

As I've said before, I wouldn't be totally surprised if the new X-box will be ARM based, powered by Denver/nVidia. Watch it happen!

We'll see in time I guess...

Nope, I'll bet you on this one as Denver isn't due to be released in time.
And the PS4 is probably some weird AMD X86 based APU/Cell hybrid.

Originally Posted by Bundi

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05...cortex_a9_arm/

I guess they can scale the clock speed for markets that demand it.

This, on the other hand is neat. I wonder why the did this with a dual core (and not a quad), and why they didn't consider the A15 instead.

Something tells me 3.1 is probably pushing it (considering 1.4 is typical for this CPU @ 40nm).

Still, its a great step forward.

[psxphill]

Originally Posted by Iggy

By that logic, it wouldn't have made sense to move to a PPC in the 360 when the original Xbox used an Intel processor.

It only made sense for Microsoft to go for a processor from IBM and a graphics chip from ATI, because Microsoft didn't have a great relationship with Intel or NVidia after the original xbox.

Plus they got the CPU cheap because Sony helped pay for it.

None of the next gen consoles are going to be ARM based, it's just not good enough. It's ok for tablets or a nas, maybe even for a computer that isn't going to be pushed too hard.

[persia]

Yes, my be is that XBox will return to intel or play intel and AMD off one another and go for the cheapest. Splitting the company on three completely different processors makes zero sense.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by psxphill

None of the next gen consoles are going to be ARM based, it's just not good enough. It's ok for tablets or a nas, maybe even for a computer that isn't going to be pushed too hard.

Thank you. I'm glad somebody here realizes this. Even the new Cloudbook is less powerful then its Intel powered predecessor.

Originally Posted by persia

Yes, my be is that XBox will return to intel or play intel and AMD off one another and go for the cheapest. Splitting the company on three completely different processors makes zero sense.

Rumor has it that Sony will use an AMD APU in its PS4 along with a Cell processor. The GPU that Microsoft is going to use has been announced, but I could see them doing something similar and using both GPUs.

[psxphill]

Originally Posted by Iggy

Rumor has it that Sony will use an AMD APU in its PS4 along with a Cell processor.

Well not just 1 cell, the rumours was that it's double the core's than the PS3. If they want backwards compatibility with the PS3 then they'll need to include the Cell though, no way that is going to be emulated.

They could probably emulate the PS2 on the PS4 as well, but whether they will is another matter.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by psxphill

They could probably emulate the PS2 on the PS4 as well, but whether they will is another matter.

Since they eliminated PS2 emulation on the most recent PS3s, that's unlikely, but they could do it via software.

[psxphill]

Originally Posted by Iggy

Since they eliminated PS2 emulation on the most recent PS3s, that's unlikely, but they could do it via software.

Not exactly the most recent, they removed PS2 backward compatibility 5 years ago. It was only in the models available in the first 12 months. Software compatibility was hidden in them for ages, but if you hack the console to use it then you'll find that a lot of games run really slow.

I guess it depends on how quick the PS4 is.

[Fats]

Originally Posted by Iggy

Thank you. I'm glad somebody here realizes this. Even the new Cloudbook is less powerful then its Intel powered predecessor.

I guess you ment Chromebook and AnandTech seems to disagree with your statement.
Staf.

[som99]

We won't see ARM in any of the next gen consoles no, they are by far to slow still.
I hope both M$ and Sony go for AMD since AMD needs the cash, they are sinking fast and can't compete on the high-end anymore witch leaves Intel in a monopoly stance wich I do not like.

EDIT: Latest rumors, one of the latest dev systems from sony holds AMD's HSA-cpu A10 "trinity", so if this will be the CPU used AMD will get som cash dire needed fror their x86 family. I hope to god they won't use integrated GPU tho.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by Fats

I guess you ment Chromebook and AnandTech seems to disagree with your statement.
Staf.

Well Staf, the first benchmarks I saw compared the new Chromebook to the older Intel Celeron based model and in all tests it was slower, so yeah I disagree with their opinions.

http://gigaom.com/mobile/intel-v-arm...rmance-battle/

[Fats]

Originally Posted by Iggy

Well Staf, the first benchmarks I saw compared the new Chromebook to the older Intel Celeron based model and in all tests it was slower, so yeah I disagree with their opinions.

http://gigaom.com/mobile/intel-v-arm...rmance-battle/

So I would like to know why these two have opposing results ? Don't know gigaom well but I do know AnandTech always does a thorough investigation and cataloging something they do as opinion is IMHO not doing them justice.

greets,
Staf.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by Fats

So I would like to know why these two have opposing results ? Don't know gigaom well but I do know AnandTech always does a thorough investigation and cataloging something they do as opinion is IMHO not doing them justice.

greets,
Staf.

Its obvious that the A15 does well when compared to an Atom (and very well when compared to all other ARM processors).
Its just that other X86 processors have a much greater lead in performance.

No big deal if your concern is performance per watt.

[beller]

I was lucky enough to grab a new Chromebook (I do like the Cloudbook ref) this past week. I've seen the bench marks and, yes the new ARM model is a tick slower than the Intel in tests. From user experience I've found it quite snappy. Much faster on the internet than my first gen iPad.

I picked it up to see how much you could do for $249. It's screen could be better, the camera could have more pixels, but all of that (including an Intel) would have raised the price beyond $249.

ARM can help reduce costs and that will put a computer into the hands of more folks. All good!

One of the things I originally loved about the Amiga and the Mac was the marriage between the OS and hardware makers. ChromeOS seems headed in the same direction.

[Iggy]

@beller

The only real complaint I've heard so far is the same as yours (that the screen could have a better quality display).

$249 is a good price, although I paid less for my Atom based netbooks and i got real hard drives in them.

My main concern would be the dependency on cloud based applications and storage.

But I'll admit that the A15 is a nice step forward.

[takemehomegrandma]

Once again there are rumors of a potential, upcoming architectural switch for Apple Mac's:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-1...r-the-mac.html

This is far from being the first rumor of this kind, many similar has circulated over the net during the last few years. One almost begin to wonder if there is a certain threshold when one can actually start using the old "where there is smoke, there is fire" saying.

The usual responses to these rumors are: "Bullsh!t, ARM doesn't have enough performance", and the people saying so are usually sitting in the car of present, driving down the road of time, and looking at the various ARM CPU's in their rear mirror. A natural thing to do (looking in the rear mirror that is), since the road goes over a hill a bit further down the road, a hill blocking the view of whats at the other side of the crest. So since you don't have a picture of the future, but you do of the past, your comments couldn't possibly be anything other than the one above.

But just because you and me and all the other common people can't see at all what's on the other side of the hill, it doesn't matter that there aren't people there doing stuff already, things we are about to see in a year or two when we actually drives over that hill and gets our first view over the previously hidden horizon.

If I may speculate, I think Mr. Jen-Hsun Huang, founder and chief of the nVidia corporation, will be standing there with a few new CPU's based on their "Denver" concept. "within the next three or four years we’re going to bring to the mobile market performance that is nearly a hundred times higher than today’s’ PC." (That was 1.5 years ago) "ARM is now the only CPU in the world that will have deep penetration in the mobile devices, the PC, servers and supercomputers."

They have been working with this for years, and should almost be ready. He is the guy who brought us a true computer graphic evolution (through competition and fabless production), he is the guy who brought us the GPU, the concept that took graphics and gaming to a whole new dimension by its enormous performance in running massively paralleled code. He has delivered. He has reformed and evolved a whole industry. Twice. Now he is very confident it will happen again with a whole new class of processor. And while you and me can't really see this yet (we will come over that hill in a year or two), I have no doubt whatsoever that both Apple and Microsoft is sitting down at nVidias briefings and presentations (or by now, maybe even demonstrations) of the thing. And within context like this, the "migration" rumors like the one mentioned above doesn't sound like "bullsh!t" anymore.

What did the nVidia chief have to say about a possible Mac OS migration to ARM?

Q: Is ARM on the Mac OS possible?
A: "I don’t know their plans but if you look at it from 10,000 feet, it seems to make sense, right? Because if they go Mac on ARM, they could address some of their concerns with their own SOC. So instead of paying $150, they can pay $15."

Nothing in his answer about whether it would be technically doable at all, if it would make technologically sense, that seems to be *a given* in his reply (and he has unique inside knowledge of the products ahead, nobody can deny that). No instead he focus on IP and the economic side of doing their own SoC. Which Apple seems to be quite aware about themselves, releasing their own SoC CPU's every half a year or so.

So it will be indeed very interesting to see what's behind that crest of the hill that the road of time will pass over in a year or so.