Intel: ARM's the reason the iPhone... sucks?

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 22nd 2008 at 2:27AM

Okay, look, whether you adore or despise the iPhone, it's pretty hard to make a cohesive argument that it's slow or lags its competitors in offering the "full Internet." Somehow, though, a pair of Intel execs at the Intel Developer Forum in Taipei this week have whipped up a whole spiel based on the shaky claim that the iPhone's a dog for processing power and isn't capable of offering a rich Internet experience, going on to suggest that ARM architecture is to blame for the nasty pickle Apple's gotten itself into. Here's the best part, though: until only very recently, Intel itself was a huge player in the ARM game with its XScale line, now owned by Marvell. Isn't it too soon to harsh on a technology you so heavily bought into, guys? Of course, the moral of the story -- if you're buying the execs' line, anyway -- is that the iPhone wouldn't suck if they'd gone with an Intel stack, which they claim is a good two years ahead of the best that ARM has to offer. Said Intel's Pankaj Kedia, pressing on with the smack talk: "I know what their roadmap is, I know where they're going and I'm not worried." Of course, knowing the roadmap inside and out gets a little easier when you're a ginormous ARM licensee.

[Thanks, Renai L.]

Filed under: Apple

Tags: apple, arm, chipset, intel, iphone, processor

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

BoyBawang @ Oct 22nd 2008 5:00AM

I really love the elegance of ARM architecture: RISC, no legacy X86, very power efficient, and hardware integration of mobile components.
With Windows Mobile 7 coming, I hope the future of ARM will enter and replace x86 desktop PCs

Neutral

lejupp @ Oct 22nd 2008 4:57AM

> [...] the iPhone wouldn't suck if they'd
> gone with an Intel stack [...]

So Intel has a GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA radio stack now?

Neutral

christexaport @ Oct 22nd 2008 8:32AM

Wow! They can be jealous all they want, but blaming the ARM architecture for the iPhone's weak web browsing prowess is ridiculous and irresponsible! I guess Nokia's latest Nseries devices with Flash enabled browsers, the best, most desktop-like mobile browsing environment available, shouldn't be so good then. They all run ARM processors as well.

I wish the incumbent titans shut up whenever they get embarrassed by competitors...

Neutral

john @ Oct 22nd 2008 9:32AM

Just what Intel based CPU should the iPhone use? An Atom? You'd need to carry around a battery bigger than the iPhone itself, on some tether, in order to have a decent battery life. But, I guess, that'd solve the removable battery problem...

ARM's one and ONLY problem is that it's not x86 compatible. Which is only a problem if you care about x86 compatibility.

Neutral

Matt G @ Oct 22nd 2008 9:56AM

Well I'd say this is a pretty clear indication that Intel has something cooking for the MID/Smartphone sector that is x86.

Low Ranked

maneton @ Oct 22nd 2008 11:23AM

iPhone

Neutral

Devang @ Oct 22nd 2008 1:25PM

I think somebody at Intel really loves the trash talk, first Nvidia, now ARM... who's next?

He is right though, how many fully open ARM devices are there that will run any compiled code in widespread adoption? N8*0? GP2X? Boards sold by digikey? Yep, those are widespread (I'm not being facetious). ARM stuff is locked down way too often and therefore not too smart. Sorry iPhone.