No, the smaller form factors make little sense for x86. The baseline we're seeing is UMPC (which is already dubbed pointless and thrown away as trash)
I believe that ARM's Cortex marchitecture for the same wattages as future Atoms, will still lead in performance and compatibility on its hometurf. Plus, nobody will cooperate with Intel to make joint mobile SOCs, or the numbers will be minuscule compared to ARM licensed designs.
Originally Posted by radaja
Regardless, this is where Intel is headed with Atom ... it will most likely wind up in some smart phone within the next 2-3 years I expect. Lot's of rumors of it going into the iPhone.
Intel's argument for going into this space is to solidify a common software stack, what will work on your PC will work on your cell phone. It simplifies the life of product developers. It is precisely compatibility why Intel is pushing this down the ladder and looking for consumer electronic penetration.'
It was plastered all over the first 1/3 of the IDF technology keynote this past IDF: http://download.intel.com/pressroom/...inger_day1.pdf
Will they be successful? Time will tell I suppose.
Last edited by JumpingJack; 09-14-2008 at 02:36 AM.
One hundred years from now It won't matter
What kind of car I drove What kind of house I lived in
How much money I had in the bank Nor what my cloths looked like.... But The world may be a little better Because, I was important In the life of a child.
-- from "Within My Power" by Forest Witcraft
Moorestown is one year away and directly targets smartphones.
Don't underestimate Intel's influence in the industry; Moorestown has all the ingredients needed to succeed and if the price is right there will be plenty of phones based on it.
Maybe, if its competitors dont get some epic improvements. I think it's too far away to say it's good or anything near that.
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Everything... besides an OS. That is actually x86 and phone-loving.
Linux. That is an OS which will run on it ... Linux has embedded builds all over the place, heck -- Toshiba's first HD DVD player ran off Linux. Best part, it's free.
One hundred years from now It won't matter
What kind of car I drove What kind of house I lived in
How much money I had in the bank Nor what my cloths looked like.... But The world may be a little better Because, I was important In the life of a child.
-- from "Within My Power" by Forest Witcraft
Step 1 to failure IMHO. You need to get attached to a major OS and actually run most of the apps on it already. This isn't Wintel turf; even WinMo7 or 8 will probably still be ARM exclusive because of its sheer scalability.
Even at this stage, nVidia's Tegra already beats Moorestown by a simple reason- it actually has a GUI (OS?), and the ARM architecture can run most of the current cellular OSes.
Linux... let's say I'm very unkeen on it popularizing any form of personal computing. A major platform cannot tolerate 2 architectures at once- there will be no compatibility benefits and it would be a definite pain in the behind to even accommodate for the other architecture's code. That's actually disregarding the fracturedness of Linux/OSS development already!
Intel is rich, but I have a feeling that their hands are tied on this one. Moorestown can get itself into a lot of embedded devices that all have custom/non-mainstream OSes, but a real cellular OS? Literally zero light at end of tunnel.
You could very well be right ... ARM may be so entrenched it doesn't happen... but you can expect to see Atom in smart phones in the not to distant future. That I am pretty certain will happen, how many and how successful, who knows.
It is troubling that you seem to think Linux is not a major OS, for embedded applications through to server, Linux is very successful. It has an enormous library base, and can be tailored down for low power applications. It doesn't matter if you, personally, do not like it or are not keen on it -- your opinion will not be the make or break of linux success. It has been well recieved, supported, and distributed throughout the industry.
It's odd -- so you think the OS is everything, but application development, writting, and porting are constant irrelevant of the OS? Hmmmmm... who knows, maybe your right ... Atom will be a failure. Personally, I don't think so... borrowing from a standard software stack is a compelling reason. Besides, ARM -- as low power as it is, is computationally very slow for the devices it serves. Atom will beat it, I have no doubts, just in responsiveness if anything.
What if Atom makes it into iPhone 3.0... that almost guarantees success.
Last edited by JumpingJack; 09-14-2008 at 10:23 AM.
One hundred years from now It won't matter
What kind of car I drove What kind of house I lived in
How much money I had in the bank Nor what my cloths looked like.... But The world may be a little better Because, I was important In the life of a child.
-- from "Within My Power" by Forest Witcraft
x86 was too entrenched; That was why RISC derivatives all failed.
I'm good with Linux as a workstation platform and definitely rooting for it as a server platform, but its nature makes it hard to grow in the personal computing and below segments. Unless someone comes up with the ability like NT4.0 to run on Alphas and x86 at the same time (and on a phone?), the Atom's pretty much in need of blue oceans.
And although Apple loves Intel, I'm pretty sure that they've settled down on ARM and the respective software ecosystems. I think that Tegra's the next logical progression for them- Cortex still needs more solutions with it in before it's that ready for mass deployment. I'd get one of those Archos internet tablets to see how it is in general, though.
Tegra has the best shot at stopping that atomic march
One hundred years from now It won't matter
What kind of car I drove What kind of house I lived in
How much money I had in the bank Nor what my cloths looked like.... But The world may be a little better Because, I was important In the life of a child.
-- from "Within My Power" by Forest Witcraft
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