Multi-Core ARM and Speed vs power thoughts

[ibi sum]

>(Funny talking about this stuff on music-bar...)

Where else to talk about it?



On 11/30/09, Tony Hardie-Bick <tony at entity.net> wrote:
> thx1138 wrote:
>>  From my point of observation the MultiCore Coretex A9 ARM platform does
>> open up some new dimensions. However, there are several problems bothering
>> the semiconductor business at present. Software tools for Linux are not
>> evolving fast enough to keep up with the demand on code optimization. This
>> is evolving but is it fast enough in the Open Source community?
>
>  From a contributor's point-of-view, there is a competition between fast
> progress sponsored by companies like TI and Intel, who will do their best to
> convince people to use platform-specific optimised code, in TI's case, (the
> DSP
> in) OMAP, in Intel's case, Moblin. Actually what these are are two highly
> specific and serious strategies by companies guarding their space by pushing
> into new ones.
>
> For example, with Moblin, there is only one "contributor" with the bucks and
> interest in porting to ARM, and that's Nokia. They just did a deal with
> Intel,
> and will play nice. Intel will release the code for the OpenGL part of
> Moblin,
> only when they need to under terms of the GPL, which is, on the same day
> they
> distribute binaries. One can see all this as strategic, and understand why.
>
>  From a contributor's point-of-view, why indulge this? Silicon is fast and
> getting faster. Your PC is unbelievably fast. Write code that's portable.
> Ti,
> Intel, Nokia and others will not seriously undermine their credibility, but,
> IMHO, certainly TI and Intel could do a little better, and are, very mildly,
> being disingenuous.
>
> Code need not get stuck in one domain, and that's the key to a big open
> source
> tidal wave in any domain. It will be interesting to see, how such
> inspirations
> play out in the new world of mobile, which is the most interesting space,
> future-wise, for a developer.
>
> Tony (HB)
>
> (Funny talking about this stuff on music-bar...)
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