Re:Intel's Process Roadmap to 2025: with 4nm, 3nm, 20A and 18A?
by smoldesu on Monday July 26, 2021 @06:08PM
(#27966102)
> On the one hand, x86 is (eventually) going the way of the dodo for some of the biggest datacenter customers
For the most part, I'm convinced the bulk of this transition has already happened. If you were running highly-parallelized code or needed to switch to specialty hardware, you've probably done so already.
> On the other hand, x86 is so ubiquitous for PC that it would take a sea change for Apple Silicon to take over.
Not just Apple silicon, but for ARM to take over. Even the best compatibility layers for x86/ARM still present a massive performance hit, and there's otherwise no real incentive for the bulk of PC owners to switch over. I say this as the kid who grew up with a first-gen Raspberry Pi on their wishlist: x86 is an immovable force, and it will be decades before it loses support in the mainline Linux kernel. Even if Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and every other Fortune 500 company made a mad-dash transition to ARM (which they won't), you still couldn't dethrone x86 in terms of support and install-base.
For the most part, I'm convinced the bulk of this transition has already happened. If you were running highly-parallelized code or needed to switch to specialty hardware, you've probably done so already.
> On the other hand, x86 is so ubiquitous for PC that it would take a sea change for Apple Silicon to take over.
Not just Apple silicon, but for ARM to take over. Even the best compatibility layers for x86/ARM still present a massive performance hit, and there's otherwise no real incentive for the bulk of PC owners to switch over. I say this as the kid who grew up with a first-gen Raspberry Pi on their wishlist: x86 is an immovable force, and it will be decades before it loses support in the mainline Linux kernel. Even if Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and every other Fortune 500 company made a mad-dash transition to ARM (which they won't), you still couldn't dethrone x86 in terms of support and install-base.