News & Reviews:   ARM

In a move that doesn't surprise anyone, TSMC and GlobalFoundries, two of the world's leading semiconductor foundries (they make chips) are looking to begin development on a 20nm chip for next generation ARM based mobile processors. The advantage of doing so includes:

• 30% faster clock speed
• 1.9 times better density
• 25% less power consumption

Intel seems to finally understand that releasing a new chip or two every year isn't going to let it break into the mobile market. There are many ARM-based competitors already offering much better alternatives such as Qualcomm, Samsung, Huawei, Apple, TSMC, NVIDIA and many more. New players emerging from China such as MediaTek are also offering equal if not better performance processors at much cheaper price points. New Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has had this to say about it:

We see that Atom is now at the same importance, it's launching on the same leading edge technology, sometimes even coming before Core," says Krzanich.

I think you'll start to see stuff with our silicon toward the end of the year and the beginning of next year," We're trying to get our silicon into some of them, create some ourselves, understand the usage and create an ecosystem."-Brian Krzanich, CEO, Intel

Diversifying their server offerings, AMD have released their first ARM-based Server processor under the codename 'Seattle'. Utilizing ARM Cortex A57 core design, the first Seattle processors will offer an 8-core processor with plans for a 16-core processor in the future. It should be available in Q2 of 2014. Tech specs for the Seattle processor include:

• 2GHz
• Freedom Fabric Technology
• Supports up to 128GB DRAM
• extensive offload engines ~ better power efficiency and reduced CPU loading
• Server Caliber encryption and compression
• Legacy networking including integrated 10GbE

Most of the smartphones and tablets in the market are running on ARM-based processors such as those from Qualcomm and Samsung, especially the Android systems, Intel is making big steps to try and break into the mobile market. One of the most major of which is their new Atom microarcitecture called Silvermont. While there are already a number of Intel powered smartphones and tablets (Lenovo K900, Asus FonePad, etc.), they hardly compare to the hordes of ARM based smartphones and tablets already in and coming to the market. ARM is already coming out with a number of new processors targeting both the midrange and the high performance markets so there is a lot riding on the success of Intel's Silvermont.

While Intel have already dominated the Non-Android based laptop and hybrid computer market, it has yet to do much in Android-based markets. This is mostly because of the rather high-price most of its laptops and tablets have compared to the normal ARM-powered Android-based tablet or notebook.

In a move to solve this, Intel VP Paul Otellini was quoted as saying that $200 touchscreen laptops would be coming soon in the next couple of months. Intel Executive VP Dadi Perlmutter was also quoted as saying that these devices would most likely be Android based laptops using Intel Atom processors. For the more resource needy, Perlmutter said that there would also be Android laptops and hybrids using Intel Core processors but range from $399 to $499.

ASUS Malaysia launched the ASUS Transformer AiO today (27-3-2013) at Full House, Kuala Lumpur with full media coverage. Featuring a demo by Elly Yeoh Country Product Manager of ASUS and a product briefing by Vanessa Ng, Market Development Manager, Intel Malaysia, the ASUS Transformer AiO combines the ARM based hardware of the 18.4-inch touchscreen tablet with the power of the Intel 3rd generation processor based PC Station stand.

The recent CES 2013 showed off a number of large scale tablets and the ASUS Transformer AIO (All-in-One) is one of them. Launched officially today (27-3-2013) in Malaysia, the ASUS Transformer AIO (P1801) offers the best of both worlds by offering both a desktop AIO form factor along with a portable 18.4 inch touchscreen tablet. Like other ASUS Transformer machines this hybrid AIO can be detached from it's stand and used as a tablet.