ARM demos the Cortex-A9's web browsing skills on video
By Donald Melanson 
posted January 5th 2010 10:24PM
posted January 5th 2010 10:24PM
We've been hearing reports of the ARM Cortex-A9 holding its own with the ever-present 1.6GHz Atom processor for quite a while now, but ARM is now taking advantage of CES to do a bit more up-front boasting -- like this recently-posted video demoing the processor's browsing performance against an average netbook. While it's obviously not entirely scientific, the Cortex-A9 does seem to lag only slightly behind -- which is all the more impressive considering that the ARM is running at just 500MHz compared to the Atom's 1.6GHz. Equally impressive: ARM's fine taste in websites. Head on past the break for the video.
are those... CRT's? what...
@grumbles
Yes, those are those big, heavy 19 inch ViewSonic CRT's that emit so much heat it feels like you are at CES in the summer.
@grumbles
Everyone knows "teh 1337 h@X0rZ" use CRTs
@grumbles Dear ARM, what's up with those CRTs? Now I know there's some company I would not work for.
@grumbles
CRTs are resolution independant as opposed to LCDs which have only one native resolution. So labs usually have CRTs especially if one day you have a Cortex dev board with a X resolution and the next another board with a Y resolution.
@iErik Thank you. Someone who isn't an idiot.
When they say "configured as a dual-core" does that mean their developer board has two processors at 500mhz each?
@fox650 - Almost, except they are not totally separated so, as another comment explained, you don't add frequencies.
The Cortex-A9 can be used as a single core but also as mutli-core up to 4.
The following picture shows that when you have MP (Multi Processing), some architecture is shared: http://www.arm.com/rximages/18629.jpg
To sum up, having a Quad-core is not like having a Quadri-processor computer.
HTH, Alban.
fine taste as in CRT monitors and websites with over 1300 coding errors?
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=www.engadget.com&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0
@ScienceProUSAcom Haven't you been milking that statistic and link enough for two days?
@ScienceProUSAcom
It was actually someone else, I liked it and decided to use it since it fits :)
@ScienceProUSAcom
thats pretty funny...
AHHHHHHH!!!! The McDonalds Freak Baby is back!
Maybe it's because ever since the website redesign it takes 4 times as long to load Engadget, so loading it quickly is truly a feat...
@teodude exactly :)
Talking of redesign, how come engadget still sends mails you yourself replied to yourself? Is it that hard to skip mailing people about their own posts, geez.
I hope this shows up in the iPhone this summer as predicted by ARM. I could definitely see Apple introducing 3rd party multitasking with iPhone 4.0 stating that they waited until they had a multicore processor.
@mikethebigo
Is it reasonable to expect this in any mobile phone by summer? I would say 2011 sometime.
@F C ARM said they would be ready for smartphones in 2010. Here's the engadget article about it:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/16/arm-promises-dual-core-cortex-a9-based-smartphones-next-year/
I could see the A9 being in the Slate as well, spruced by up PA Semi. It's going to be an exciting year - I can't believe the processing power of these small devices.
this is pretty impressive
its interesting ... what if they could overtake intel considering these cortex cips seem to use much less power and are cheaper in general. If they can make them better, they will surely have an edge.
they also use so little energy that i think it could be possible to use them in a laptop such as CULV + THe cell phone chip to get a boost.
??
maybe?
@(Unverified)
Wont ever happen. ARM cant run Windows and without Windows it lacks what most people want - a full computer that is small.
What I find funny about this video - they used a development board that is MUCH larger than the netbook to it's left. You wan't to compare a full sized laptop with core2duo to your cortex then? I bet the core2 would wipe the floor with your cortex.
They also used a dual core chip, atom is single core.
The guy also claims the netbook has an 'artificial advantage' by using a video accelerator, theres nothing artificial if it does it's job.
@(Unverified)
it's called a Smartbook, Engadget itself has anounced a few this week...
@fatslug
So by your logic, it has to run Windows to be a full computer?
Wow. I guess my department should send back these Power Express 520's. Apparently, having the fastest processor in the world still doesn't make you a computer. Who knew?
@Kira
Reading comprehension helps out alot.
I said most people want a netbook/computer that runs Windows, nothing about that Windows is the only OS that make a computer a 'real/full' computer. Windows has a 90%+ marketshare for a reason, most people either need to use Windows or prefer using it.
@fatslug
What does it matter how big the box is? It's future form factor is already known, the dev case could be a fridge and it wouldn't change the fact that the final product will make it's way into phones and netbooks. A test rig is typically something that's easy to work with and can have parts easily swapped out.
Also, he says artificial advantage because the Cortex chip will also be accompanied by a video accelerator in pretty much every product it ships in but for the sake of testing they went without it.
@Kira
I can see where my wording is confusing. My fault on that. Obviously other OS's are 'full computers' as well.
@fatslug No worries, its just odd to see Windows and x86 depicted as the high end so much on engadget when I'm an IT girl at a place that operates Power and Itanium as well. :P
@fatslug
Even if it has 2 cores, is it running google chrome or some multi-threaded web browser? No. Also, Atom has HT. Also, compare memory capacity on each.
Btw, QT and Cairo both use OpenGL as a back-end, so any GPU will help GREATLY at rendering pretty much anything. Did the video pointed that the Cortex A9 was at 500Mhz, and w/o GPU? I want to see a PII browse at that speed.
@fatslug
dude have you ever seen a dev board for a smartphone? it basically has the same screen that the final product will use, but surrounded by PCB and components the size of a desktop motherboard
@LickMySparseVoxelOctree
Did i say Also already?
@geoken
Lets see it running in a netbook chassis. Running an intel quad core chip on a dev board and saying it's for netbooks isn't the same as it actually running in an actual netbook. Heat is an obvious problem for form factor.
Show us the demo of the dual core cortex with the video accelerator then don't complain something has an advantage and it's artificial because you're system doesn't have it yet. One is currently real while the other is vaporware.
@fatslug
you are really ignorant, a 1GHz Cortex A8 runs just fine on the pocketsized Nexus One, a dual core 500MHz Cortex A9 + PowerVR SGX graphics won't be a problem on a smartbook, especially when the engineers at ARM tell you
@JeremyBenthem
I'm not falling for FUD from ARM, show us the netbook/smartbook chassis running this dual core chip.
Regardless it still didn't beat the Atom in any of the tasks they displayed. So what they achieved was a slower computer, in a bigger form factor.
@fatslug You know this is just a preview right juts to show us consumers what they are cooking up. Once they goot everything worked out and start building the actual phones then they will compare the two
As if they would ever release a smartphone cpu that would only fit on a ATX MOBO!
@fatslug
To further my point, just as the Marvell smartbook showed their ARM computer barely runs 4 hours on battery. So you use a slower processor and don't gain any advantage in battery usage, applications and webpages load slower. You are also stuck using Linux or Windows CE which doesnt have nearly the amount of quality software as on Windows XP/7 using Atom. The pricing for an ARM smartbook is nearly the same as any other ATOM netbook, but you get so much less.
@cge10 i should probably have spell checked first my bad(im to tired to worry about it)
@fatslug this is comparing a device that is only 4" diagonal to something with a 9" screen. Showing us that smartphones are almost as fast as your average netbook. By the way since i got my HTC TP2 with a single core 528mhz cpu i have not used my netbook at all because i cant fit my net book in my pocket, pretty soon netbooks will be replaced by smartphones
@cge10
Smartbooks replacing netbooks would be nice but it's unlikely to ever happen. The smartphone market hasn't grown that much of the years in the US. One because carriers overprice their data plans, and two because smartphones are expensive.
Plus I'd prefer sitting in an airplane watching a movie on a netbook or notebook then squitting at a small phone screen. Writing documents, emails and reading webpages is always preferable using a netbook. Portability has it's pluses with smartphones but ease of use cannot be beat with either a notebook or netbook.
@fatslug
*facepalm*
@fatslug
Smartbooks replacing netbooks would be nice but it's unlikely to ever happen. The smartphone market hasn't grown that much of the years in the US.
SHOULD BE:
SmartPHONES replacing netbooks would be nice but it's unlikely to ever happen. The smartphone market hasn't grown that much OVER the years in the US.
@fatslug
That Marvell unit seems to have only 2 cell battery.. Try achieving 4 hours with Atom on 2 cell battery... ROFLMFAO..
@fatslug 1st if u need to check emials....... WTH do u think smartphones where made for 2nd i wanna see u pull out a netbook while in a cab or on a bus or even in a restaurant for that matter. 3rd if u need to type a doc up you can use a netbook same for movies, i use my netbook as a portable movie player i cant argue with you there;) 4th smartphones has increase a ton over the lat 3 years u know iphone counts as a smartphone right?
If you spend a ton of time in the air i would get at least a 13" notebook because typing on a netbook is horrible i can type quicker on my Phone.
@cge10
I agree theres advantages and disadvantages to both form factors. Neither is going to replace the other, both likely will continue to live on.
Email interfaces on phones are very basic and using a real keyboard is easier than using a software or tiny hardware keyboard. Typing up a personal email on a phone is fine, writing an email to a client/customer using a mobile phone isn't professional - lacks formatting tools, spellchecking.
Sure I wouldnt use a netbook in a restaurant or cab unless the netbook had gps in it :)
Smartphones are good for quickly reading/writing and keeping up to date with information. Doing anything that takes more than 5-10 minutes no matter what smartphone is a pain, and a notebook or netbook is always preferred (atleast for me). Most netbooks typically have close to full sized keyboards now anyway so cramped keyboards on netbooks are a thing of the past.
@fatslug Yeah i got a little off topic nut fact is ARM just made a cpu that is 1/8th of a netbook and runs pretty much the same speed fact is Intel is getting lazy maybe they should hire another team to work on Smaller cpu's to get much more speed
@Uberich
Check the Asus EEE PC 1005PE netbook, has 8+ hours of battery life on it using Atom N450 (pinetrail) and it's a 6-cell battery.
Doing the math you roughly get 1.3 hours per cell, a 2 cell battery would give over 2 1/2 hours of battery life.
Again so with ARM you get a slower computer with barely any battery improvement, you have less software to use since ARM cant use Windows, and you pay around the same price as a netbook. You get less and you pay the same with ARM = no thanks.
@fatslug
Actuall I stand corrected on the battery life, check this review:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5437&p=2
Shows that the ASUS had around 12 hours of battery life on a 6 cell battery. Basically 2 hours per cell, which is the same as the ARM.
So what exactly does the ARM smartbook provide that is an advantage, it's slower, has the same battery performance as newer Atom N460, doesnt run as much software as ATOM/Windows netbooks, and costs around the same as netbooks.
These ARM smartbooks will be a major failure. Just a previous Linux netbooks had a 75% return rate these will suffer the same fate when users find they cant run the software they are used to.
@fatslug Your paying for smaller tech and its rated doesn't mean its gona get 2 1/2 hours im betting that is if its idling with the screen on the slowest setting trust me and if u have to email clients im gona bet that your company supplies you with a really good notebook made for that stuff and business people use smartphones more then anyone sending emails to clients thats y blackberry is doing so good
@cge10
Actually to this whole thread, please note that heatsinks will shrink (those look pasted on) with optimization, the walls will crumble and are to protect the thing from the things that float around us which can be harmful to electronics, including but not limited to hair, various chemicals in the air, bacteria, dust, and much more. I imagine they only removed the lid for so long to show us. Seriously, check the height of the contents before you make those assumptions on size. With optimizations, this could easily be Nintendo-DS sized, if not smaller.
They do say the atom is a 1.6gHz atom, and their setup is dual core, so I guess the atom is a single core atom then, so keep that in mind when he says at the end the arm runs at 500mHz, it actually runs at 2 times 500 we can conclude.
Plus there's only so much power that is used by a browser, unless the site is REALLY crappy designed (and there are too many of those sites it's true)
Not that ARM's aren't nice, and I hope they retain at least an equal marketshare in the low-power segment compared to intel in the coming years.
@Wwhat
dual core cpu speeds don't work that way, its not 500 x2, its still just 500mhz that can run multiple things at once.
I'll give ya a good example
Say you need to move 10 people on a trip
Single Core CPU = 1 car can hold 5 people
Dual Core CPU = 2 cars can hold 5 people each
They move at the same speed, it just takes the single core longer because it has to make 2 trips instead of 1.
You aren't magically increasing the speed by 2 because u have 2 cores