Intel vs ARM: The future Battle of mobile technology

On January 29, Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek and Nvidia are the largest mobile chipmakers, and their market share accounts for the vast majority of smartphones and Tablet PCs. At the same time, they have a common point, that is, its CPU hardware is based on the arm of the CORTEX-A series built. Intel may still dominate the PC and Windows markets, but the company is much tougher on the mobile market-only a handful of less successful Windows tablets and mobile phones use their chip products.

How does arm occupy the entire smartphone market? What can intel do to challenge arm's dominance? The Technology website Android Authority has been exploring these issues recently:

Intel needs a win

Intel's position in the mobile market is much higher, which is largely certain, and almost every market analyst thinks the technology giant is choosing the wrong direction.

According to a report published by Gartner late last year, tablets will grow by 43% in 2014, mobile phones will grow by 5%, and PC and notebook sales are expected to fall another 7%.

As can be seen from the figures, the tablet market will almost catch up with PC shipments this year, and the smartphone market is above both. In hindsight, Intel had been in the mobile market a few years ago, but they had remained dominant in a persistently negative market.

On the economic issue, Intel's recent earnings conference call gives us a more accurate understanding of the situation. The company's annual operating income and net income are falling, by 16% and 13% respectively. On the bright side, their earnings have remained relatively stable, down only 1%. The data suggest that Intel is spending more on the competition, but it is also possible that the ailing PC market has not hurt Intel's earnings as many have expected.

Intel's billions of dollar gain has not shown signs of disappearing anytime, but if the PC market continues to shrink, this complacency will surely cause trouble. Intel has a long way to go to prove that its chips can really compete with arm. But for now, success is still elusive.

Why is arm so successful?

The story of ARM is no different from Intel. The Cambridge company has been pushing the smartphone revolution from the start. As early as the early 90, ARM began to design the CPU for Apple.

But Arm's victory is not just a good relationship. Their focus on Low-power processors has proven to be a perfect match for smartphones, and Intel is still struggling to thin its products.

The business model may be a more important factor in the success of arm. Unlike Intel, ARM is not responsible for production, but sells its own intellectual property to other companies. Far-sighted companies, such as Qualcomm, also helped arm's success. Through arm design, Qualcomm created the market's most sophisticated mobile chip.

Arm and their partners have changed the nature of hardware development by relying on spontaneous orders in the global marketplace rather than predicting future demand. Intel, as well as other vendors, has failed to make accurate predictions about the future to give smartphone developers what they really want.

New Battlefield: 64-bit, energy efficiency and "next generation" performance

Of course, these are all gone. Intel is now paying more attention to the mobile market and has pushed a series of low-power Atom Mobile processors into the marketplace. At present, nothing can break arm's repressive status, but Intel does have a new product line coming up.

First is the bay Trail, a 22nm 64-bit tablet, divided into four-core and dual-core two versions. The Bay Trail is Intel's first truly top mobile chip, with integrated graphics from the Ivy Bridge architecture and equivalent CPU performance to ARM cortex A15. Overall, the performance of the Bay Trail is expected to be between 骁丽 800 and 600, and the mediocre Clover Trail architecture is a notable improvement. Intel's president recently disclosed to investors that the first Android tablet to be equipped with the technology will be available in the two quarter of this year.

Further further, Intel will launch the Cherry Trail architecture chip in the second half of this year to become the first manufacturer to launch a 14nm chip. Under the 14nm fabrication process, Cherry Trail is expected to bring significant energy efficiency and performance improvements, and may pose a strong threat to arm developers who are essentially still in 28nm.

Intel also has no technology to drop smartphones, and their new Merrifield architecture is said to be twice times faster than Clover trail+, with LTE support. We expect to see this chip on the MWC next month. While Merrifield may not be enough to challenge arm, the Broxton, due to be launched in mid-2015, could be a big opportunity for Intel.

Broxton is a huge change for Intel, as Intel has finally made the tablet and smartphone technology a part of the architecture, making it much easier to tailor specific needs. In addition to schema upgrades, Broxton's more modular design should allow Intel to reduce the time and cost of innovation, potentially offsetting one of arm's big advantages. Intel also plans to bring their atom processors to the entry-level market in the second half of this year through the Sofia chip. But, sadly, Intel is once again lagging behind with its rivals in integrating LTE onto the chip, and the product will not be available until 2015.

Intel's prospects may look bright, but arm is ready to launch a 64-bit processor. Currently, they are developing a new ARMV8 architecture, the first processor to use the technology will be cortex A53.

Cortex A53 to be much milder than the future value of Intel's products for performance. The performance of this chip is expected to be the same level as the old cortex A9, so it will not replace ARM's current high-end cortex A15. But we should not be disappointed: low-power chips will bring super-class to the smartphone, or the space left in performance will be used to add additional processing cores. The 骁丽 410 is expected to be the first 64-bit ARM processor to be used by smartphones, which will be available in the second half of the year.

ARM's first focus may be energy-saving and low-cost, but the A57 processor will eventually lead to a new generation of chip performance improvements. We are looking forward to the future of big. Little chip, which combines low-power cortex A53 with high-performance A57 to achieve a perfect balance of performance and endurance. But we have to wait and see when (or will) cortex A57 will appear. Perhaps Samsung's 64-bit chips will be the first to come.

In addition to ARM's architecture development, their business model is also ready to go beyond Intel's plans to chip. The new 骁丽 805 of course will keep arm's top position on the performance table, and the Adreno 420 GPU is more impressive than any Intel product. Similarly, Nvidia's Tegra K1 claims to have "home machine quality" gaming experience based on arm CPUs, while MediaTek continues to work on low-end, energy-efficient arm chips. Intel currently has no products to contend with these processors.

From what we've learned, arm is expected to maintain its lead in the foreseeable future due to the strong GPU performance of Qualcomm's integrated LTE chip. Intel is becoming more and more promising in the field of tablet CPUs and will be the first to launch 64-bit chips and more sophisticated manufacturing processes. Intel's focus on cheap smartphones may also be rewarded, but they are unlikely to challenge arm in the high-end smartphone arena until 2015, when they joined the LTE support.

Maybe Intel has other interesting markets?

Future technology and things networking

While it is almost impossible for Intel to reproduce its brilliance in the mobile market in the PC Arena, new chips will be needed in some new technology areas. Whether it's a networked home, industrial technology, or a consumer product that promotes quality of life, the Internet of Things is about to begin.

In the exciting area of the internet of things, ultra-low power and connectivity are key, and arm and Intel are already starting to get their heads in the emerging market. But they may encounter strong competition from other chip makers, such as MIPS, which are already rooted in the field.

Even in this area, arm is one step ahead of Intel, with a small 32-bit cortex M-series technology that has been licensed to several vendors. These chips can be used in many technologies, from touch-screen sensors to white appliances.

Cortex M0 is led by the ultra-low-power chip, its operating voltage is less than 2V, power is less than 0.1W, and the series at the top of the cortex M4 has a richer function. Cortex m may not be effective in smartphones, but it brings interesting hints for future smartphone accessories and wireless low-power devices. As we know, Qualcomm is interested in the concept of IoT and has demonstrated a TOQ smart watch with cortex M3 chips.

On the other hand, Intel did not release the quark processor until recently. The Quark X1000 chip, released in the four quarter last year, features a 32-bit single core 400MHz processor, with a thermal design power consumption (TDP) peak of only 2.2W. This could be the basis for an excellent smart watch, but Intel offers less choice on low-power chips than arm.

More specifically, Intel also shows the Edison Development Board, which has only the SD card size. It comes with a dual-core quark processor and supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. The dual-core chip may be good for running the operating system, but the cost and volume will need to be further reduced if Intel wants to make their LED coffee cups more affordable.

If the internet of things is really the future, then the next processor war may not be on the performance, but on the volume and energy efficiency. Both arm and Intel provide the processors that can be backed by wearable technology in the future, but not just their two chips achieve the low power and cost requirements of the Internet of things.