[Info-vax] Microsoft On ARM Failure (was Re: VSI licensing policy (again))

[Dave Froble]

On 9/23/2021 5:40 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 9/23/21 4:08 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
>> On 9/23/2021 3:20 PM, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>>> On 2021-09-23 15:17:50 +0000, Dave Froble said:
>>>
>>>> My question is, "why"?
>>>>
>>>> x86 is cheap.
>>>> x86 is everywhere.
>>>>
>>>> What reason would Microsoft have to look at anything else?
>>>
>>> Price and power efficiency, same as usual. Arm can be cheaper, more
>>> power-efficient, and fast.
>>>
>>> https://www.anandtech.com/show/15578/cloud-clash-amazon-graviton2-arm-against-intel-and-amd/9
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Arm designs can also be juggernaut-scale, with 15 billion transistors in
>>> one recent design; with fast big.LITTLE multiprocessor, a fast GPU,
>>> statistics-math acceleration; that's a full-on SoC.  And
>>> power-efficient. For comparison, Itanium Poulson and Kittson are ~3
>>> billion. And Alpha and Itanium processors and servers never really saw
>>> appreciable work on power efficiency.
>>>
>>> As for being "everywhere", the Arm installed base dwarfs those of Intel
>>> and AMD and x86-64. And I'd suspect that Arm-related investments dwarf
>>> Intel, too.
>>>
>>> Intel has spectacular processor design and processor fabrication
>>> abilities, but they're also necessarily working within a massive
>>> software installed base, and with a complex and accreted architecture.
>>> And their fabrication efforts have been falling short. TSMC and others
>>> have massive investments in fabrication, as well. Intel has discussed
>>> using TMSC to fab parts of some Intel-designed components.
>>>
>>> https://www.reuters.com/business/intel-details-mixed-source-chip-strategy-tsmc-partnerships-2021-08-19/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Microsoft has been selling Arm clients for a while, and publicly
>>> prototyping Arm servers for several years now, as have others. How far
>>> Microsoft might get with Windows 11 for ARM64? There are a number of
>>> folks working with the Windows ARM64 insiders' preview, including having
>>> gotten that working on Apple M1.
>>>
>>> https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2021/06/28/announcing-arm64ec-building-native-and-interoperable-apps-for-windows-11-on-arm/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> How? If? When? Unknown. Architectural and product transitions tend to be
>>> boring and slow and happening only around the periphery of other
>>> markets, then the platforms and tools are ready, and then the changes
>>> can then accelerate through the market.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I'm aware of many of the things ARM is used for.  Yes, they are quite
>> useful.
>>
>> But, are they much better for desktop and notebook PCs?  I really
>> can't see them being much better in that environment.
>
> What difference does the CPU make for those two application genre?
>
> bill

Not much.  The question to ask is, what does it cost to move WEENDOZE to 
ARM?  Or just milk the current cash cow ...

-- 
David Froble                       Tel: 724-529-0450
Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc.      E-Mail: davef at tsoft-inc.com
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