Yokemate of Keyboards
Posts: 2720 from 2003/2/24
@Jim
Quote:
Considering the machines we are used to using, a Cortex-A9 might be adequate.
"Adequate", quite true, it will do what most people wants/needs to do with their computer (in fact, it *already does*, for millions of people around the world, albeit not in the shape of a "desktop"), but that's not what Crumb is talking about. I feel he wants workstation or "Gaming PC" performance, or thereabout at least. But it's not like his PPC machine that he is running MorphOS on comes close to Core i7 anyway, and a move to ARM would definitely be a step upwards from today, at least when/if that would happen (i.e. not today, or tomorrow, or this year, or...)
@Andreas
Quote:
I guess that real desktop systems (i.e. what we understand by this term) will emerge with Cortex-A15 in 2013 at the earliest. It may even take as long as initiatives like nVidia's Project Denver (2014 or later) to bring ARM (ARMv8 in this case) really to the desktop. We'll see.
Personally, I would bet on the latter. Not because Cortex-A15 per se wouldn't be enough, performance wise, but I think most chip/motherboard manufacturers will still aim for handhelds, smart-TV's, etc, with this core. And of course servers, since this is a pronounced target application for this core AFAIK, at least from ARM themselves. IIRC the nVidia president pronounced their "Denver" to be a "x86 killer" though, and I think they will make Denver based CPU's for all kinds of applications, including desktop and servers (and *I still* wouldn't be surprised if at least one of the upcoming console platforms will use this, most probable the new X-box, for several reasons).
I think we will see a fork in what we perceive as "desktop" in a close future. Most people (both professionally and at home) are definitely using over-performing computers for their computing tasks today. People are using core i5's and i7's mainly to type mails, browsing the web and office kind of applications. Expensive and power hungry CPU's, costing corporations and families thousands of dollars, completely in vain, when (as Jim said) a Cortex A9 could easily do the job they needs, for a fraction of the resources (both investment and running resources).
So with a "fork" I mean that I believe that the market for gaming PC's and workstations will continue its rapid hunt for performance and "marketing numbers" to advertise, while the "general use PC" will shrink in both PCB size (it won't need to be expandable, hence less slots), power consumption, performance and price. I think ARM will play a role here, and while I think Microsoft's agenda with ARM is first and foremost to meet Apple/Samsung/Google/etc in the handheld/tablet/smart-TV/whatever consumer markets, I also think they have more on their agenda with Windows 8 for ARM than just that, at least I think they want to open up some options. I think they are very familiar with nVidia's (and others as well) agenda with ARM, completely unknown to us of course, and I think they are "playing both sides" right now (both x86 and ARM) to see how things will fold. I think there is a bigger turmoil than ever in the industry right now, where paradigm shifts *definitely* can happen.
At least this is *my* opinion!
That said (again), I wouldn't mind MorphOS going x86, if it could be done in a smart way!
MorphOS is Amiga
done right! MorphOS NG will be AROS
done right! 
