Jon Hylands <jon at huv.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 16:54:51 -0500, Jon Hylands <jon at huv.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 10:47:48 -0800, Tim Rowledge <tim at sumeru.stanford.edu>
> > wrote:
> > 
> > > Given that current high-end cpus like P4 and G5 take many, many amps
> > > (50 - 100) to achieve a 'mere' 2-3GHz
> > 
> > I think you meant to say 50-100 watts, right?
> 
> Actually, looking at the specs, they say for the new 3.4 GHz chips, you're
> looking at 103 watts at 1.25 volts, which is a little over 80 amps...
I forget which exact machine but I'm pretty sure one of the Alpha
variants pulled well over 100A.

> 
> I'd be surprised if the ARM can run at 800 MHz with 50 mA.
Don't forget there is no such thing as 'the ARM'. I think there are
nearly a hundred variants on sale right now. Range goes from 30-ish MHz
ARM6 variants (often with onboard camera or fax or printer circuitry)
up to 824MHz XScale and supposed Samsung Halla 1.2GHz versions.
For ARM10 family cpus, ARM claim 0.6 mW/MHz with the caches. So for
that variant I was missing a decimal place...

> I've seen some
> web pages claim the new 1 GHz XScale takes 1 watt to run at full power,
> which is still tiny compared to the Intel chips, but then again its a whole
> lot slower also.
I don't hold out a lot of hope for XScale in the long run; why would
intel really push anything into competing with their cash-cow?
Currently the big hope for single cpu performance in the ARM range is
the Halla, but Samsung have been promising it for a couple of years now.

tim
--
Tim Rowledge, tim at sumeru.stanford.edu, http://sumeru.stanford.edu/tim
Useful Latin Phrases:- Noli me vocare, ego te vocabo = Don't call me,
I'll call you.