Intel on Mobile Phones/Tablets

[Asher]

There's a lot of software that you can't just cross-compile. And people aren't necessarily going to want to buy new copies of software. You distribute binaries, not source code, and the binaries are x86. Why do you think so few things are x64, despite it having been out for years?

If your software isn't portable in 2012, you should be fired.
People may not want to buy new copies of software, but they always do. Further, these can be done via updates and not necessarily new purchases.
Few things are x64 because few things need to be 64-bit. To make our software 64-bit we flipped a switch and it just worked. We ship 32-bit & 64-bit versions on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It isn't very difficult. There are also performance disadvantages in shifting to x64 if you don't need the address space (memory usage requirements, lack of uOP fusion on Core processors).

[Asher]

Tell me, HC -- which is "electrically faster" -- RISC, CISC, or VLIW? Hell, what about VLIW vs SIMD?

You're about to discover how complicated these approaches all are, and why they all are valid in certain scenarios.

Did you know that DirectX 8 GPUs were RISC, modern ATI GPUs are VLIW and modern Nvidia GPUs are SIMD?

[Hauldren Collider]

Asher, don't mind me, I'm spouting off what they told us when they briefly discussed RISC in my Computer Systems lecture. You probably know better than me.

[MikeH]

I answered this thread in the first reply. Should have closed the thread then.

[Fake Boris]

I've heard that Intel's 22nm chips will be competitive.

Also, competing in the tablet market might not be the same as competing in the phone market.

[Egbert]

I answered this thread in the first reply. Should have closed the thread then.

I agree. You should have closed every other thread in the OT while you were at it.

[Asher]

There's a lot of software that you can't just cross-compile. And people aren't necessarily going to want to buy new copies of software. You distribute binaries, not source code, and the binaries are x86. Why do you think so few things are x64, despite it having been out for years?