[citation][nom]shompa[/nom]And the chap who thinks that ARM uses loads of energy under load: An ordinary dual core 1ghz ARM uses 2.5 watt under max load. A low voltage Intel uses about 17 watt. The difference is that i ARM you have everything inside the ARM chip. No need for a chipset. The chipset has been for example ATOMs big drawback. It is fine to have an ATOM that draws 4 watt. But you have to pair it with a chipset that draws 40 watt.[/citation]
Perhaps ARM does have an advantage here then! I am curious though what the ratio is of computing power to electricity consumption of mobile ARM processors vs Intel are.
To my rant earlier, I did it because I think it would help engage conversation regarding A.R.M. vs x86 and software availability and access. I love competition and A.R.M. is welcome to compete with Intel and A.M.D., it'll help keep everyone on their toes!
But there is a big problem if you are used to using specific software on your computer, like circuit simulation software, other engineering stuff, photo editing, programming IDEs, etc.. Will those companies port to A.R.M.? Doubt it.
I am sure that A.R.M. netbooks will work just fine as a secondary computer, but as a primary one, don’t think so.
If your used to using popular linux software, I would suppose that you would be more likely to get your software eventually ported to the A.R.M. architecture, but if your primarily a windows user and software whore (like me), then getting an A.R.M. netbook as your main computer would suck.
Good luck ARM! I am confident that you can make a significant dent to the netbook market, but will never penetrate the laptop/desktop market significantly unless software companies really really invest in software development, and even then people can’t use old software on their new ARM machines… unless someone develops an x86 virtual pc!