> It's kind of ironic that AMD's x86 cpus are actually the cheapest choice if you want relatively high performance because that is one of the big selling points of ARM.
I'd disagree that that's the selling point. I'd say ARM's selling points have always been low cost and power efficiency. They have recently started trying to make inroads into the higher performance server market (with their selling point still being power efficiency), but their main market is SOCs.
That said, I'd also like to see ARM developing some higher powered chips at a lower price point, it'll be interesting to see how much they start to move into that market.
I think you meant low cost and low power, not power efficiency. In terms of computation performed per joule used, ARM isn't any better than x86, and is much worse on many workloads. They design their parts at a low power point, but they aren't terribly efficient.
Thanks, I had thought it was power efficiency, but this seems to have been the case historically, and currently only seems to apply to microcontrollers[0] (note, this is a cursory reading of a single article, please let me know if there is other information). I should probably update my information into the 21st century. :)
I'd disagree that that's the selling point. I'd say ARM's selling points have always been low cost and power efficiency. They have recently started trying to make inroads into the higher performance server market (with their selling point still being power efficiency), but their main market is SOCs.
That said, I'd also like to see ARM developing some higher powered chips at a lower price point, it'll be interesting to see how much they start to move into that market.