ARM CPU: oncemore revisited: any benefits there - eg. regarding the battery-life-times

[dhubs]

good day dear Linux-gurus, hello dear friends



First of all: these aren't Linux things – they're CPU-related topics. I'll try this off-topic-forum. If this doesn't work for you – and the mods – just let me know. Thanks

i have heard alot about this thing - recently – about ARM CPUs – and the possibilities.

Well – if you look at the development: a really lot of things has happened: For over ten years, Microsoft struggled with Windows notebooks with ARM processors. But – from the looks of things now, that seems to be slowly becoming "history."

It looks (at least in my opinion) like there are some attractive devices – for example, with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor.

Regarding the technical aspects of power consumption, for example: The new Windows-on-ARM notebooks – they seem to run significantly longer on battery power than x86 laptops with AMD chips. How do you see this? Okay, and of course. Battery life isn't the only criterion—there may be more.

How would you decide: Would you consider such a new CPU?


Of course, x86 isn't completely obsolete yet, but I think the x86 generation is under a lot of pressure. Where there are still domains, it might be able to defend them for a while longer: perhaps for specialized applications, gaming, legacy software, or high-clocked workstations, and the like. Otherwise, I largely share your view.


What's your opinion?

look forward to hear from you

regards



update:


Qualcomm had already indicated some time ago that it intended to present the new "Oryon V3" CPU this year. This seems to be exciting.
They've practically set the date - ... Qualcomm is planning to unveil the second Snapdragon X generation in September – so probably at the Summit. The Snapdragon Summit (in other words, Qualcomm's big in-house trade fair) will take place this year from September 23rd to 25th, 2025, in Hawaii. At Qualcomm's in-house trade fair, most of the new products will be presented – in other words, with all the news and innovations in the fields of processors, AI, automotive, etc. The third generation of the Oryon CPU may also be unveiled then. We'll see – it's certainly going to be exciting.

see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oryon#:~:text=Oryon is an 8 to,Nuvia was acquired by Qualcomm

the Qualcomm-page: https://www.qualcomm.com/company/events

 

[CptKrf]

I was watching a youtube of the Gamers Nexus (saw the title of the video - I am not a gamer) and it was a demonstration of an ARM desktop. No OS was mentioned that I remember, but it looked just like a normal ATX box. So I got to wondering if it would be possible to make a DIY build. After a while of surfing, I found the answer to be yes, if...

You have a stash of gold buried in the backyard.
You are a relative of Musk and are on good terms.
You lucked out in the zillion to 1 odds of lottery.

The consumer costs of just a motherboard and processor are fantastic. Thousands of dollars. EACH. And with gooblygook specs that I still don't quite understand.

But, bottom line, unless someone successfully gets a distro to run on Apple Silicon, (or one of the Qualcom boxes that I know absolutely nothing about) it will probably be a while before Linux is going to run on ARM for the average techie, except for the Raspberries.

 

[KGIII]

unless someone successfully gets a distro to run on Apple Silicon

This has already been done. Much of it is predicated on the Pi architecture. There are now multiple distros supporting the modern M4 CPUs and other ARM64 CPUs. Heck, Ubuntu and Fedora were among the first mainstream distros to do so and that has been true for long enough to no longer be 'news'.

Also, the prices can be pretty low for ARM64 CPUs and motherboards. There are some expensive choices but there are choices down in the few hundreds of dollar range - which is quite impressive. You can get a working desktop for a few hundred bucks, sans peripherals like a monitor or keyboard. You don't even need special RAM or anything like that.

I'm not saying that ARM is the future. I'm saying that ARM (and RISC) have been relevant before and are currently extremely relevant. You're hard-pressed to find a mobile phone that isn't ARM-based. That Mac has switched - and now hammers out the benchmarks - is telling. You can buy an M4 Mini for $500.

I'd suggest looking up Jeff Geerling on YouTube if you want some light/easily digested material on the subject. While you can spend thousands of dollars, you don't really need to. If you do spend thousands of dollars, it's in the three thousand dollar range and gives you amazing performance and does so at a price parity with the x86_64 architecture.

In short, you're a bit behind the times (I'm pretty sure).

Just do a search at your favorite search engine for 'Linux distros with ARM64 support'. That ship has sailed and more and more distros are working at it.

ARM is nothing new. The architecture goes way back to the earliest days of personal computers. It was used in all sorts of things - things with hundreds of thousands of devices sold, like the BBC Micro or the Acorn Atom. (I've been a sideline fan for a long time.)

Edit: There's also Asahi Linux which I think is mostly meant just for this purpose - running Linux on M4 CPUs. But, lots of distros have ARM64 support these days.

 

[CptKrf]

In short, you're a bit behind the times (I'm pretty sure).


Edit: There's also Asahi Linux which I think is mostly meant just for this purpose - running Linux on M4 CPUs. But, lots of distros have ARM64 support these days.

Not really. It was just a casual thought after a casual video and with only Amazon and Newegg searches as research. But I disagree about a couple of ARM statements. I think that ARM is going to bury x86, and mainly because of the decades of cruft that has built up. Not to mention that Intel is in its dotage and just short of having dementia. If AMD can turn it around, that would be great, but It would not surprise me to see the company suddenly announce a line of major ARM processors.

I have lots of PI's, obviously with ARM, and several Macs, all in the Apple Silicon hardware, but my main driver now is a Rysen 7.

One older M1 mini is reserved for Asahi, but I am letting a colleague dink with that, and so far, we am not impressed with the end result. With the effort, for sure, but it isn't something I want to hack on. In my younger days, I loved whacking away at drivers and kernels, but now I just want something that works.

 

[KGIII]

I think that ARM is going to bury x86

Oh, we more or less agree. AMD is already working on making ARM-based CPUs.

If we go by sheer number of CPUs sold, I suspect ARM is already in the lead because of the mobile adoption. That accounts for literal billions of devices.

I'm not sure where the tipping point will be. With that, I will not speculate. I suspect the x86_64 architecture will not go quietly into the deep.

. In my younger days, I loved whacking away at drivers and kernels, but now I just want something that works.

Yeah, I don't do the bleeding edge these days. I've got better things to do with my time.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Qualcomm had already indicated some time ago that it intended to present the new "Oryon V3" CPU this year. This seems to be exciting.
They've practically set the date - ... Qualcomm is planning to unveil the second Snapdragon X generation in September

I just got hired to represent Qualcomm Snapdragon in retail stores this coming fall. I literally just got hired, like an hour ago!!! They need techie people who can teach employees.

As of now, Snapdragon Elite IS NOT the best for gaming. It seems like it wouldn't be bad. The NPU's boost the processing power. Some apps have ARM specific apps, some don't and some of those don't work well with a compatibility layer.

After training begins I'll have a more developed opinion on this. Right now, my experience with ARM is limited to smart phones, tablets and the research I did for this job. Microsoft seems to be embracing it, so who knows. The jury is still out as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Training began a couple of days ago. If everything I'm learning is as good as they say it is, Apple, Intel and AMD have a lot of catching up to do. The Snapdragon X series has an NPU with 45 TOPS. AI doesn't need the CPU or GPU. All of my training has got me thinking, wondering what the future of Linux looks like in terms of AI...

I've learned A LOT about the Snapdragon "processor". They call it it a SoC, System on a Chip. It's not really a CPU. It's literally an entire system on a Chip: MOBO, CPU, GPU, NPU, memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a few other things on a chip that looks to be a little smaller than a traditional Intel or AMD CPU. Just toss in an SSD, a PSU and your ready to go. It's very fast and energy efficient. It's also the only processor that not only meets minimum TOPS specs for MS Copilot +, it exceeds it.