Why don't these devices use Intel processors like laptops do? Why are they restricted to ARM?
Also for Windows 8, do they want ARM just for tablets and smartphones or is it also for laptops/desktops (is that even possible)?
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2As a side note, if your interested developing using the ARM architecture, the Rapsberry Pi is great for starting off. And to supplement Jay Greco's answer, it litterally runs off of a usb-micro phone charger. – Chad Harrison Jun 18 '13 at 19:25
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The main advantage to ARM is the power consumption. ARM is very efficient compared to other architectures. At the most basic level, the lower power consumption comes from the processor's instruction set: ARM devices use a RISC instruction set, which is a small but optimized set of instructions. This allows for fewer transistors and instructions, thus saving both power and space. As you can imagine, mobile phone manufacturers want to get the most bang for their buck when it comes to battery life.
It's been widely rumored that Microsoft is going to move their laptop focus to ARM, but the trend has yet to take off in my opinion. As of right now, Intel processors pack a lot more performance punch at the cost of higher power consumption. This is a tradeoff manufacturers are willing to make with desktops and laptops, as it's usually relatively easy to supply more power to these devices (versus, say, a smartphone).
Jay Greco
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2I think the lower power of ARM processors is due more to a specific design goal of low power, and not really anything intrinsic to its RISCness. After all, it wasn't long ago that Apple used PowerPC CPUs (also RISC) in all their products, an approach that was abandoned in no small part because the G5 was so power hungry they had a hard time keeping it cool even in desktops while delivering performance that could compete with the current x86 CPUs. – Phil Frost Jun 18 '13 at 20:54
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Today ARM processors have a big advantage in mobile devices: they need less energy in order to work. This is very important in smartphones and tablets because the technology of the batteries is always the same and so if you want to increase the autonomy of these devices you need components that use less power. For now, Intel is some steps behind in power usage, so manufacturers prefer to use ARM CPUs in mobile devices. This is mainly due to the retrocompatibility of the x86 architecture that Intel is forced to maintain. This involves a higher number of transistors and the more transistors, the more power needed. Intel is investing a lot in this sector and today some devices are starting to use its processor (Motorola RAZR i, Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1).
For now Intel processors have better performance and so are preferred in laptops and desktops to ARM. ARM is growing fast and I think that in the future its processors will also be used in laptops (that have more benefits than desktops in reduced power consumption) and finally in desktops.
For now Intel wins in performance and ARM wins in consumption but they are working hard to reduce their gaps. Intel also has the best manufacturing process in the world and this is a great advantage that allows to them to reduce the gap from ARM in power consumption.
JYelton
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Oceanic815
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3ARM also has the advantage of being licensed, so that different SoCs can be designed for different markets (and there is less vendor lock-in). Intel currently only offers limited options in terms of what features are included on the chip with the processing cores. For Apple (and perhaps Samsung), using ARM allows greater control of the product. First-mover advantages also apply (tablets exploit smart phone software). Intel also has high margins and is known to have used borderline anti-competitive methods. A good answer should address this complexity. – Jun 18 '13 at 22:01
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The biggest reason you find ARM chipsets in the smaller devices is because ARM chips are designed for low power applications. Intel chips were originally designed for running on desktops, where power usage isn't as big of an issue. The line in the sand has been slowly blurring as both companies try to capture wider markets.
See this article for a good comparison.
Ryan Helminen
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Price. I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this yet - along with low power consumption, you can get great cost savings using ARM CPUs instead of Intel x86s.
You can get $159-$199 tablets today with full touchscreen interfaces - an equivalent laptop (with a x86 processor) will likely cost at least $300-$400.
Granted, there's a downside to that low cost (and power consumption), and that is that processing power is limited compared to Intel x86 CPUs. But for smartphones and tablets, you're likely not opening up 10-20 browser tabs, so it should be fine.
You may ask whether gaming and video viewing is on par with desktops/laptops though, and the answer is mostly yes - smartphones and tablets have some powerful (less-expensive) GPUs that should give you at least 720p video, with some giving you 1080p video.
Suman
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Yes, ARMs tend to cost less. But, to make conclusions about the cost of the CPU based on the street price of the finished goods is... eh... a stretch. – Nick Alexeev Jun 18 '13 at 22:52
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@NickAlexeev, thanks for the comment. I'm not quite sure what you mean - are you saying that because OEMs can get a "discount" due to volume, the street price of ARM vs x86 CPUs isn't that valid a comparison? I was thinking that the street price gives some base price to compare with. – Suman Jun 18 '13 at 22:53
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There are a lot of contributing factors in the street price of the finish goods, other than the CPU cost. Cost of other components, manufacturing quantities, distribution channel. – Nick Alexeev Jun 18 '13 at 22:58
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It's also not just the cost processor, but everything arround it on the board. There's also nontechnical reasons like Apple's 40% markup on everyting (not sure that's the exact number, but somewhere around there). – Chad Harrison Jun 20 '13 at 17:51
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ARM for desktops and laptops is possible and actually has happened, some laptops have used an arm running linux to keep the system ready in hibernation (to save power by turning off/down the intel processor and using the lower power arm to keep memory fresh, etc).
ARM architecture can most definitely compete with intel, same as on a smartphone as in the server room you an get more processing power for less watts, your server farm could do the same at less overall power. There are a number of reasons why arm cannot penetrate that market likewise there are a number of reasons that intel is not able to penetrate arm's markets. The netbooks started as arm based running linux and had an attractive number of hours/days per charge, but folks wanted windows so that meant power consumption, so they got windows in a little larger form factor with significantly less number of hours per charge.
I wouldnt be surprised if Apple makes the first successful/major jump to ARM for laptops, will see.
old_timer
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