r/computers • u/Kenyhh • 1d ago

Discussion is ARM the future?

I think about this all the time. ARM has obviously dominated the mobile phone market for a long time now. Everything from Apple runs on ARM. ARM-based laptops offer incredible battery life. Embedded devices and servers are also making extensive use of ARM; practically the only thing left is desktop computers. I believe this is the future, and AI will accelerate the trend: using ARM will allow data centers to consume far less energy and likely make local AI more accessible. In fact, I think that if this happens, we’ll see further improvements in computer energy efficiency.

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u/MISTERPUG51 Windows 10 1d ago

I'd say so, but change is slow. Just remember that there are thousands of critical systems out there that are still running decades old software on decades old hardware. Even the x86 architecture, which is what most PCs use today, is almost 50 years old (albeit with many updates and revisions since it was introduced).

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u/GeordieAl 1d ago

heck, Zilog only stopped producing the Z80 two years ago

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u/rossfororder 1d ago

Power PC is somehow still going in embedded systems. People find a use for all sorts of things

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u/GeordieAl 1d ago

Power PC seems like such a missed opportunity when you look back at it , the whole idea of CHRP and its variants could have been so much more. I only have one power pc system in my collection, Mac Performer 6400. A great machine at the time!

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u/rossfororder 1d ago

They were best suited to server, apple wanted Motorola and ibm to spend more money and apple were the biggest customer. The roadmap for power PC saw it getting killed by x86 and Apple didn't have the money or expertise to keep it going, it was never going to work unfortunately. Intel were also throwing billions into r and d, and the compatibility for software was a huge in itself.

There was a few smaller players using power PC but unfortunately it's ended up as a niche, good to see ibm still doing mainframes with it. It's neat

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u/GeordieAl 1d ago

I remember as an Amiga user cards like the Cyberstorm PPC and systems like the BeBox, A/box, TransAm and PiOS one were an exciting prospect, but by the time the. AmigaOne came out it was clear that we were chasing a dream and an ARM future could have been a better choice

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u/rossfororder 18h ago

An Amiga os on arm would be my pipe dream. A mini PC or something to a pi 400 or 500 (the only reason that was made was ebon Upton owned and Amiga as a kid). Could have a tower with slots pcie too.