ExtremeTech had a chat with Mike Bell, Intel's chief of mobile, and got to hear that the chip giant does not believe that ARM is more energy efficient than an x86 chip. Full details over here.
Moving in for the kill, I finally ask the question I’ve been gagging to ask: Where does this leave ARM, ARM’s licensees (Qualcomm, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Nvidia), and the foundries? If Medfield is already competitive on power consumption and processing power, and Intel has such a dominating technological lead, where does ARM go from here? “I think,” Bell begins slowly, picking his words carefully, “Moving forward, it will be difficult for anyone who doesn’t have an end-to-end capability to keep up with us. I took it for granted before I joined Intel, but this really is rocket science. When you see people working on 9nm — I see the guys in their bunny suits, doing the mask generation for the chips — you realize this is probably one of the most difficult industries I’ve ever seen. There are very few companies on Earth who have the capabilities we’ve talked about, and going forward I don’t think anyone will be able to match us.”
