The war between x86 and ARM platforms has heated up here at Computex Taipei with various vendors battling it out in a veritable war of words. Interestingly enough, even between x86 makers like Intel and VIA there are differences in perspectives on what is the right platform to use for devices like MIDs and tablets.
VIA told RCR “Intel has it wrong with mobile x86” when we asked why it had chosen to use its ARM license over x86 technology to make its $199 seven inch tablet. VIA is the only company to have access to both platforms. The firm explained that it felt x86 couldn’t scale as well as ARM in terms of power-to-size ratio.
meanwhile, Intel’s Mooly Eden replied “other guys can do whatever the hell they want to” when we asked him what he thought about VIA choosing ARM over x86 for its own tablets.
Eden also maintained that Intel’s Sandy Bridge platform would “knock your socks off” and that its mobile companion, Yule River, is due out mid-2011.
“It’s not only affordability, but desirability too,” explained Eden in his keynote, spattered with the slogan “Intel Atom Everywhere. It changes everything.”
Future products, said Intel, would no longer commit to fixed markets, and instead people would have all kinds of computing devices outside of the usual tablets, laptops, smartphones and PC field: think health and fitness, home automation, internet enabled TVs and more.
Evidently Intel thinks its Atom core can handle all of that, but ARM is already a strong competitor in almost every space mentioned above at very low power levels.
Speaking of power, however, Intel threw the towel at software makers with Eden declaring in a post-keynote round-table: “let our CPU sleep, stop asking it if it’s asleep!”
Eden explained that even one rogue software program could destroy battery life and that its MeeGo platform had been heavily power optimised for Atom.
VIA and Intel disagree over x86 for tablets
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