ARM and the OCTO-core. How much is too much?
So, recently I strolled down memory lane with my old Palm hardware. Can’t believe the amount of transformation in the hardware in just a couple of years. 130MHz Palm processor to a 1.5GHz dual core processor.
But as Moore’s Law states [no relation], simply put “things get faster, faster”. I.e. the speeds we see will continue to rise at a faster rate [ooh, a little calculus there].
So, when I heard today that the ARM people [who make processors] made the bold statement that they will produce OCTO-core devices for 2013, I said “whoah”.
Now that’s a little over a year to do so. But to have gone from a decent single core phone, to a dual core tablet, the kal-el’s got 4 and we’ll be seeing it soon. Can Moore’s Law catch up to a double again in another year?
For me, it begs the question… how fast is too fast? Is it sufficient at dual core? Afterall, the phones/tablets are meant as ‘mobile’ devices and not portable computers. I see them as something to use ‘on the go’, not to replace, but something that ‘will do’ just when we need it.
Will these super processors make the desktop PC a thing of the past? Many people have already said as much. I remember getting my netbooks and saying “this is enough”. But after a while it started to lag. Which raises another point, does the hardware lag, or the software evolve to call for more processing?
I remember getting the most out of my palm TX with it’s whopping 128MB of memory. Now it’s not unheard of for apps to ask for a few MB or more [games taking easily 10+].
So, with all that being said, I’m sure I’ll drool over the octo-core [not the octo-mom... can we call it something else? like the otto-core for Otto Octavius], but will I notice my phone/tablet have slowed by then; or will the apps have demanded so much more by then?
Your thoughts?
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