2013-06-14, 05:08 AM
Yeah, faster in terms of cycles doesn't mean much for a broad base of computer applications. From what I've seen, ARM's whole business model is built around "specialty" chips that work decently for their specific application, but suck at everything else.
The truth is, most people have had PCs that are WAY over powered for their needs since CPU speed went above 1GHz. Most people just played solitaire or surfed the web. Now that cell phones have taken over web surfing and simple gaming, the masses are dropping desktops and the industry is shifting attention to the new portable market, But it won't ever replace the computing power that can fit in a desktop tower. Overall, gaming has suffered for it. Graphics have actually gotten worse, and AI is horrible these days because most games are cross-platform and dumbed down to meet the low system abilities of consoles and portables. That's not to say all portable games are bad, but they are pale shadows of what they could be on a desktop.
SoM has scalable requirements; you could run games that only used the original SoM resources in software mode on a single core 1Ghz CPU. And you could probably run such a game on an ARM device via emulation (assuming someone puts together an emulator). But I doubt you'll ever see a SOM game with updated graphics like Rathmore running decently on an ARM unless the company changes it's whole engineering strategy.
There's a reason cellphones run on 5 volt batteries and Desktops take a 600 watt power supply 
The truth is, most people have had PCs that are WAY over powered for their needs since CPU speed went above 1GHz. Most people just played solitaire or surfed the web. Now that cell phones have taken over web surfing and simple gaming, the masses are dropping desktops and the industry is shifting attention to the new portable market, But it won't ever replace the computing power that can fit in a desktop tower. Overall, gaming has suffered for it. Graphics have actually gotten worse, and AI is horrible these days because most games are cross-platform and dumbed down to meet the low system abilities of consoles and portables. That's not to say all portable games are bad, but they are pale shadows of what they could be on a desktop.
SoM has scalable requirements; you could run games that only used the original SoM resources in software mode on a single core 1Ghz CPU. And you could probably run such a game on an ARM device via emulation (assuming someone puts together an emulator). But I doubt you'll ever see a SOM game with updated graphics like Rathmore running decently on an ARM unless the company changes it's whole engineering strategy.
There's a reason cellphones run on 5 volt batteries and Desktops take a 600 watt power supply