NEC prepping Quad-Core ARM processor
NEC is planning to launch a processor based on ARM Cortex A9 that will be shown-off at the MWC 2010. It appears that Quad-core mobile CPUs are going to be next big thing in the area of mobile computing.
We want to ask our loyal readers – what kind of device(s) should be using this CPU?
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I see this being successful in MIDs, but in mobile phones. Why? cos of battery life
“Sometimes more is not always good”
I’ve never heard of NEC, but the quad core mobile cpu sounds pretty nice!
Like Mike,
More isn’t always better!
But a Quad setup may be less effecient.
Why?
Programs usually rely on a single core setup.
Programs that rely on dual-core setup is fairly new. Programs that benefit from Quad setup are things like video encoding, large LAN networking and extreme-limit multitasking.
So architecture that benefits from Quad core setup won’t hit the mobile market until a long time, probably not even the desktop experience until a long time.
We’ve had Core2Quad’s and not a single high-end (eg Crysis) Windows game currently performs any better than the same processor in a Dual setup.
That being said I remember a wise dev who said going from single to dual core is great as the benefits are vast. He said its better having a processor thats dual core (eg both at 1GHz) than having a solo that’s clocked (eg at 2GHz) twice that figure.
So CURRENTLY and NEAR FUTURE, the REAL gain in performance in going from Dual to Quad setup is very miniscule. On top of this, Quad setup would mean it occupies more space (ie larger device) and MOST importantly it would sap greatly on the battery life.
So I see 2 negatives and no positives!
Just consider this observation:
ARM was designed to be efficient and got more powerful
Intel was designed powerful and got more effecient
So now we have +1GHz dual core A9 vs 1.8+GHz Atom-solo
For the battle of MIDs, tablets & netbooks.
All is in favour of ARM except x86 compatability.
Which is a big advantage!
Until a Linux solution arrives, something like MeeGO.
It looks like ARM had the long-term better approach.