Friday, June 1st 2018

An ARM to Rule Them All: ARM 76 To Challenge x86 Chips in the Laptop Space?

ARM has announced their next, high-performance computing solution with their A76 design, which brings another large performance increase to the fledgling architecture. having been touted for some time as a true contender to the aging x86 architecture, ARM has had a way of extracting impressive performance increases with each iteration of its computing designs, in the order of 20% do 40% performance increases in an almost annual basis. Compare that to the poster-child of x86 computing, Intel, and its passivity-fueled 5 to 10% yearly performance increases, and the projections aren't that hard to grasp: at some point in time, ARM cores will surpass x86 in performance - at least on the mobility space.

The new ARM A76 design, to be manufactured on the 7 nm process, brings about a 35% increase in performance compared to last years' A75. This comes with an added 40% power efficiency (partly from the 10 nm to 7 nm transition, the rest from architecture efficiency and performance improvements), despite the increase to maximum 3.0 GHz clocks. With the added performance, ARM is saying the new A76 will deliver 4x the Machine Learning performance of its previous A75 design.
Adding to those CPU performance improvements, is ARM's Mali-G76 GPU solution, which also packs some 30% increases in performance density (meaning, for the same silicon footprint, added 30% performance), accompanied by 30% better energy efficiency and 2.7x increased Machine Learning performance for GPU-accelerated workloads. The new GPU architecture supports up to three execution engines per shader core, features a dual texture mapper, presents configurable 2-4 slices of L2 cache, and supports up to 20 "cores" in devices for process and workload distribution.
This combination of CPU (with the ARM A76) and GPU (with the Mali-G76) performance improvements mean that ARM is now within spitting distance of x86 solutions in the mobile space; this, and the future performance projections should ARM be able to keep its development and performance improvement pace, may be one of the reasons why Microsoft invested the way it did in adding ARM support for its Windows operating system in recent times. ARM solutions that employ Microsoft's OS do provide better battery life than their x86 counterparts, and with the latest ARM 76 improvements, which are seemingly more significant than any x86 performance and efficiency increases in recent times, may well mean a push for x86 towards higher levels of required performance, leaving the entry productivity and content consumption scenarios for ARM-powered devices and architectures.
Sources: AnandTech, Tom's Hardware
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74 Comments on An ARM to Rule Them All: ARM 76 To Challenge x86 Chips in the Laptop Space?

#1
RejZoR
Hm, but can Windows 10 run on ARM CPU as regular build used for x86 or is there a special version like Windows 8.1 RT back in the day?
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#2
Vayra86
So, Fallout 76 is going to be a mobile game that only runs on this chip. I see it now. Android's Crysis is here.
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#3
Gasaraki
No, because this is projected to not even be faster than the Apple A11. Can't rule s***.
RejZoRHm, but can Windows 10 run on ARM CPU as regular build used for x86 or is there a special version like Windows 8.1 RT back in the day?
Yes, Windows 10 can run on ARM processors now but the performance is dog slow.
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#4
Octavean
If it is using emulation then naturally 32bit Windows apps would run slower on even the newest fastest ARM SoC units.
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#5
xorbe
If it is using emulation, might as well game on Linux, the MS platform won't have an advantage.
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#6
FordGT90Concept
"I go fast!1!11!1!"
RejZoRHm, but can Windows 10 run on ARM CPU as regular build used for x86 or is there a special version like Windows 8.1 RT back in the day?
Windows 8.1 RT ~= Windows 10 S

Only runs Microsoft applications Microsoft ported to ARM and the app store. I couldn't even build my own programs in Visual Studio and run it on there because Microsoft has to sign it for it to execute. Windows 10 S I don't think even supports that much--it's strictly Windows Store apps.

Granted, Microsoft had a device with an ARM processor that did x86 emulation. I don't know it worked nor how well it worked.


But no, ARM is no threat to x86 any more than it already is. There's some things x86 does better than ARM and some things ARM does better than x86.
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#7
Vya Domus
More interested in the GPUs they make to be honest. Those things are absolute wonders.
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#8
lexluthermiester
GasarakiNo, because this is projected to not even be faster than the Apple A11. Can't rule s***.
That is purely assumptive speculation on your part. 3ghz @7nm? Not sorry to tell you this, but at those speeds it will leave anything Apple makes in the dust.
GasarakiYes, Windows 10 can run on ARM processors now but the performance is dog slow.
That depends greatly on what's running in Windows 10 on ARM. The OS itself is running very well at this point. I do not enjoy defending Windows 10/MS like this but credit where it's due, they have made great progress in running Windows on ARM.
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#9
FreedomEclipse
~Technological Technocrat~
Armed and Dangerous....

No???? I'll go get my coat.
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#10
R-T-B
GasarakiNo, because this is projected to not even be faster than the Apple A11. Can't rule s***.
Can you provide evidence for this claim?

I'm not up to date as I should be in the ARM space... just curious if this is a fanboy comment, or true.
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#11
Flanker
R-T-BCan you provide evidence for this claim?

I'm not up to date as I should be in the ARM space... just curious if this is a fanboy comment, or true.
No idea what that comment is talking about tbh... Probably referring to how iPhones always have much higher benchmark scores than phones that run Android. Except those benchmark apps all have to be approved by Apple to be published on app store. Not to mention how different the operating systems are, bringing up a huge question mark to the comparability of the scores.

I do know from my recent experience with iOS development, especially using Metal's compute kernels, that the newer SoC seems to have some hidden tricks to force developers to be more efficient. Otherwise the app starts spewing out random bugs when the same piece of code runs perfectly fine using older iPhones and iPads, just with lower framerates.
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#12
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
Wake me when it surpasses a core i9 or Ryzen Threadripper in x86 performance using Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB.
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#13
RejZoR
FordGT90ConceptWindows 8.1 RT ~= Windows 10 S

Only runs Microsoft applications Microsoft ported to ARM and the app store. I couldn't even build my own programs in Visual Studio and run it on there because Microsoft has to sign it for it to execute. Windows 10 S I don't think even supports that much--it's strictly Windows Store apps.

Granted, Microsoft had a device with an ARM processor that did x86 emulation. I don't know it worked nor how well it worked.


But no, ARM is no threat to x86 any more than it already is. There's some things x86 does better than ARM and some things ARM does better than x86.
Not sure about Win10S, but in regular, you can disabe signature enforcement for Win10 Apps.
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#14
FordGT90Concept
"I go fast!1!11!1!"
Not talking about apps there. I'm talking about Portable Executables compiled for ARM. Some one found a way to temporarily disable it on Surface RT but it resets itself on every boot with no way to persistently override it. Other than a quick test, there was no practical way to publish software for it without making it for the Universal Windows Platform (aka app store).


Windows 10 S takes the same concept but is platform agnostic and is marketed for the security aspect of being so restrictive.
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#15
Minus Infinity
Surely only in the ultra-entry level laptops. It won't be challenging mid or higher tier cpus or gpu's.
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#16
yeeeeman
Sincerely, you are better off with a Celeron or with a Core Y series processor.
Just look at snapdragon 835 laptops, which is an a73. Is it slower than even a Intel N3450 which is based on Silvermont arch, lowest tier of performance there is.
If A76 is twice, even three times faster it will still be slower than any i3 from Ivy Bridge era. So please, cut the crap...
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#17
XiGMAKiD
Arm is getting closer to slacking Intel, nothing weird about that. Even AMD is finally catching up to slacking Intel.
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#18
Assimilator
"ARM 76 To Challenge x86 Chips in the Laptop Space?"

HAHAHAHA lol no. Anyone who thinks MIPS-architecture chips will ever compete with x86 in terms of performance is delusional.

BTW it's "Arm" now, not "ARM". They rebranded because apparently uppercase is no longer cool... I guess someone should tell NVIDIA.
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#19
Vayra86
FreedomEclipseArmed and Dangerous....

No???? I'll go get my coat.
It'll probably cost an ARM and a leg.

:fear:
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#20
Vya Domus
R-T-BCan you provide evidence for this claim?

I'm not up to date as I should be in the ARM space... just curious if this is a fanboy comment, or true.


Although , Geekbench is a terrible benchmark.
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#21
lexluthermiester
R-T-BCan you provide evidence for this claim?

I'm not up to date as I should be in the ARM space... just curious if this is a fanboy comment, or true.
It's a fanboy comment..
Vya Domus

Although , Geekbench is a terrible benchmark.
Note the qualification "Projected". Those projections are very conservative to say the least. Apples A11 and A10 don't run anywhere near the speeds on offer from the A76. And it's very interesting that you didn't include the multi-core stats..
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#22
R-T-B
lexluthermiesterIt's a fanboy comment..

Note the qualification "Projected". Those projections are very conservative to say the least. Apples A11 and A10 don't run anywhere near the speeds on offer from the A76. And it's very interesting that you didn't include the multi-core stats..
Appreciate the additional perspective man.
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#23
lexluthermiester
AssimilatorAnyone who thinks MIPS-architecture chips will ever compete with x86 in terms of performance is delusional.
Except that A.R.M. R.I.S.C. is different from M.I.P.S., and not just a little different, very.
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#24
Vya Domus
lexluthermiesterAnd it's very interesting that you didn't include the multi-core stats..
A76 will come in all sorts of configurations so there is no actual multi-core score they could have predicted. Anyway , like I said Geekbench isn't a great benchmark regardless as it doesn't paint the whole picture. Samsung's M3 core is a great example.
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#25
R-T-B
lexluthermiesterExcept that A.R.M. R.I.S.C. is different from M.I.P.S., and not just a little different, very.
Indeed. ARM today is looking more and more like a POWER-esque RISC design than anything lightweight like MIPS (extensions galore, etc).

...

Well, I mean minus the "FEED ME ALL YOUR ENERGY!" part...
Posted on Reply
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