ARM claims low-power crown

Chip designer ARM says its processor will draw just a tenth of the power of Intel mobile equivalents on standby – even if Intel fulfils its pledge to reduce their idle power by a tenth.

Idle power is particularly important for the emerging class of ultra-mobile computers because users should ideally be able to leave them on, ready for use, like mobile phones.

ARM cores dominate the mobile-phone space as much as Intel architecture dominates larger computers. But the two companies are competing increasingly as computers get smaller and phones get larger and smarter.

Anand Chandrasekher; vice-president of Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group, told the Intel Developer Forum last month that the Moorestown ultra-mobile processor, due to ship in 2010, would use at most a tenth of the power in standby as its predecessor.
Nigel Paver, consultant engineer at ARM, said this would still leaving Intel chips drawing ten times as much power when idling. Figures would vary because ARM does not make processors; it supplies core designs around which other companies build systems on a chip (SoSs).

“Our partners are very good at keeping power down because they have been doing it for years. They are also very used to integrating radio. Intel is still very new to this area.”

Paver also challenged Intel’s claim that it architecture is better at rendering web pages – a point reiterated by Chandrasekher at IDF.

He has posted a demonstration on YouTube that he says shows an ARM-based SoC beating an Intel Atom on page-loading speed per megahertz. See Test Bed for more on this