T E C H N O L O G Y N E W S
`
`ARM and Intel
`Battle over the
`Mobile Chip’s
`Future
`
`Brad Smith
`
`D uring the past few years,
`
`the lines between tra-
`ditional computers and
`mobile devices have been
`blurring. Users work
`with products such as Apple’s iPhone
`and Research in Motion’s Black-
`Berry to access the Web, send and
`receive e-mail, compose documents,
`shoot and view video, and download
`applications, not just make calls.
`Meanwhile, wireless consumer-
`electronics products such as per-
`sonal-navigation and gaming devices
`are increasingly accessing the Inter-
`net for various tasks, such as retriev-
`ing mapping information and partic-
`ipating in multiplayer games.
`Thus, mobile devices are perform-
`ing many more computing-related
`tasks than in the past, which places
`additional demands on the chips that
`run them. While doing this work
`requires mobile processors that pro-
`vide high performance, they also
`must manage and conserve power
`so that they won’t quickly drain
`devices’ batteries.
`ARM Ltd. has dominated the
`mobile-chip market for about 10
`years. The company doesn’t make
`processors but instead designs
`cores, CPUs, and microprocessor
`architectures and licenses them to
`manufacturers.
`As vendors have given mobile
`devices more functionality, the chip
`makers’ approach has been to sur-
`
`round an ARM core with a series of
`specialized chips that either acceler-
`ate functions such as video render-
`ing or handle specialized tasks like
`memory caching.
`Now, Intel, which rules the PC-
`and laptop-chip worlds, plans to
`challenge ARM, in recognition
`that mobile devices have become an
`attractive market, far outselling PCs
`and laptops.
`Unlike ARM, Intel is putting most
`functionality on a single chip, as it
`does with PC and laptop chips, rather
`than using separate pieces of silicon
`to enhance a core’s capabilities.
`This approach reflects Intel’s
`approach of trying to give mobile
`devices the power of small PCs,
`according to Pankaj Kedia, director
`of global ecosystem programs for
`Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group.
`ARM, on the other hand, is try-
`ing to keep mobile devices working
`in ways that people like now, while
`adding functionality but not sacri-
`ficing battery life, said Bob Morris,
`the company’s director of mobile
`computing.
`
`In essence, ARM and its partners
`are trying to build more powerful
`handheld computing devices, while
`Intel is trying to make a handheld
`PC based on the company’s x86
`architecture.
`This has set up a battle between
`two market leaders and their differ-
`ent ways of looking at the new world
`of smart mobile devices.
`
`A TAle of Two ApproAches
`The key to designing chips for
`today’s smart mobile devices is pro-
`viding high performance, multifunc-
`tionality, and low power consump-
`tion. This applies not only to smart
`phones but also to the relatively new
`ultramobile PCs (UMPCs) and soon-
`to-be-released, somewhat smaller
`mobile Internet devices (MIDs).
`There are two main approaches to
`accomplishing these goals.
`
`ArM’s model
`The leading mobile-chip makers
`include Freescale Semiconductor,
`Qualcomm, Samsung Semiconduc-
`tor, STMicroelectronics, and Texas
`Instruments (TI). Each licenses
`ARM’s chip architecture and builds
`its own processors, adding radios for
`communications, coprocessors, and
`some circuitry of its own design.
`At its most basic, the ARM archi-
`tecture is a 32-bit, reduced-instruc-
`tion-set-computing CPU design. The
`devices in today’s high-end smart
`phones use the ARM version 5 or 6
`instruction set and have clock rates
`from 400 MHz to 1 GHz, com-
`pared to typical new laptop chips’
`minimum 2.1 GHz. They consume
`a maximum of about 300 milliwatts,
`while laptops use 15 to 35 watts just
`in idle mode.
`popularity. Last year, about 3
`billion ARM-based chips shipped
`worldwide. Will Strauss, chief ana-
`lyst for market-research firm For-
`ward Concepts, estimated that 99
`percent of the world’s smart phones,
`and all new ones, use ARM-based
`technology. He said the other 1 per-
`cent use an Infineon Technologies
`core. ARM chips are also widely
`
`Published by the IEEE Computer Society
`
`May 2008
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`T E C H N O L O G Y N E W S
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`used in consumer electronics such as
`personal media players, he said.
`New functionality. As smart
`phones have added capabilities, chip
`makers have had to include dedi-
`cated circuitry to provide the neces-
`sary functionality with the required
`performance. The circuitry can be
`on separate pieces of silicon or on
`chips that surround the ARM core
`on the same piece of silicon.
`Either way, manufacturers must
`build them to work with the ARM
`core. In some cases, the circuitry
`accelerates performance for vari-
`ous functions, such as video, with-
`out burdening the CPU. In others,
`it handles, for example, memory,
`power management, interchip con-
`nectivity, and wireless communi-
`cations such as Wi-Fi. ARM now
`designs some of the companion
`chips’ architectures, including 3D
`graphics engines, said the compa-
`ny’s Morris.
`The ARM core’s instruction set
`recognizes tasks and offloads them
`when appropriate to the correct
`piece of companion or integrated
`circuitry.
`If an application requires process-
`ing by another piece of circuitry, the
`ARM core sends it the instructions
`and then saves power by going into
`sleep mode. In addition, power-
`management features turn off the
`host device’s display, reduce screen
`brightness, or shut off peripheral
`devices or radios when not in use.
`Using multiple chips also mini-
`mizes power consumption because
`they aren’t running all the time.
`The CPU could run software to
`perform functions now handled by
`the other chips, but this uses more
`processing and power than dedi-
`cated hardware and is not as fast,
`Morris said.
`Up and coming. Later this year,
`the Marvell Technology Group plans
`to ship an ARM-based XScale pro-
`cessor that runs at 1.0 to 1.5 GHz,
`said Shyam Krishnamurthy, director
`of strategy for the company’s Mobile
`Business Group. Marvell’s current
`XScale chip, used in BlackBerry
`
`devices and smart phones from
`manufacturers such as Motorola
`and Samsung, runs at 624 MHz and
`includes applications and communi-
`cations processors.
`Given the new trends in smart
`wireless devices, ARM is design-
`ing chip cores—the Cortex A8 and
`A9—for smart phones, as well as
`for UMPCs and MIDs, which have
`bigger screens, more capabilities,
`and full Internet browsers. ARM
`designed the Cortex cores to support
`a richer set of features and provide
`more capabilities, such as higher
`clock rates and new power-manage-
`ment techniques.
`
`Mobile devices are
`performing more
`computing-related tasks
`than in the past.
`
`ARM has licensed the A8 to sev-
`eral companies, which will begin
`releasing products with it by the
`end of this year, Morris said. The
`A9 will appear in devices in three to
`five years and will have four cores to
`provide more or less power as neces-
`sary, he added.
`Qualcomm will use the A8 license
`in its new Snapdragon chipset—for
`smart phones, gaming and portable-
`entertainment devices, and mini-
`computers. The company has been
`testing Snapdragon since November
`2007 and plans to release it later this
`year, noted Manjit Gill, director of
`product management for the Qual-
`comm’s Chip Business Unit.
`TI will use the A8 in its lat-
`est smart-phone chipsets, which
`the company has been testing and
`expects to appear in products late
`this year or in early 2009. To the
`A8 core, the 800-MHz OMAP3430
`multimedia chipset, which Figure 1
`shows, adds a 2D/3D graphics accel-
`erator, a high-performance video and
`audio accelerator, and an imaging
`signal processor for a device’s cam-
`era, noted Avner Goren, director of
`
`strategic marketing in TI’s wireless
`terminal business unit.
`
`Intel’s model
`The cellular-phone market has
`grown rapidly. In 2007, vendors sold
`about 1.12 billion mobile phones,
`compared to 432.7 million in 2002,
`according to IMS Research, a mar-
`ket-analysis firm.
`This is many more than the
`271.2 million PCs and laptops
`sold last year, according to mar-
`ket-research firm Gartner Inc.
`Thus, mobile devices represent an
`increasingly attractive market for
`chip manufacturers.
`Meanwhile, sales are growing
`faster for smart phones than for
`cell phones in general. In fact, ABI
`Research says smart phones, which
`comprised 10 percent of the handset
`market in 2007, will represent nearly
`33 percent by 2013.
`Said ARM’s Morris, “The real
`market for computing is going to be
`mobile devices.” This has attracted
`Intel, the world’s biggest maker of
`PC and laptop chips.
`New chip. Intel has targeted smart
`phones before, developing the ARM-
`based, XScale processor platform
`several years ago. XScale chips were
`moderately successful, but Intel sold
`the platform to Marvell in 2006.
`Now, Intel is trying again with
`new chips marketed as one of the
`company’s Centrino processors,
`which laptops currently use. The
`Centrino Atom processor, which
`includes the Intel Atom chip and a
`controller hub designed to provide
`PC-like functionality, is due to ship
`in MIDs this summer.
`Vendors could also use Atom in
`consumer-electronics products such
`as portable media players and per-
`sonal navigation devices with Inter-
`net access, which could provide ser-
`vices like real-time traffic updates,
`noted Intel’s Kedia.
`Atom will be smaller, consume less
`power, and offer more cellular capa-
`bilities than laptop and PC chips.
`Atom supports video, audio,
`and 3D graphics, as well as Intel’s
`
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`Computer
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`
`Trace
`analyzer
`
`Emulator
`pod
`
`NOR
`flash
`
`NAND
`flash
`
`Mobile
`DDR
`
`Trace
`
`Fast
`IrDA
`
`UART/IrDA
`
`JTAG/
`emulation
`I/F
`
`GPMC
`
`SDRC
`
`OMAP3430
`
`ARM
`Cortex-A8
`
`2D/3D Graphics
`Accelerator
`
`Imaging video and
`audio accelerator
`
`Image signal
`processor
`
`Shared memory controller/DMA
`
`Timers, interrupt controller, mailbox
`
` Boot/secure ROM
`
`GPIO
`
`Camera I/F
`serial-parallel
`
`Camera-serial
`
`GPIO
`
`Camera
`module
`
`Sub camera
`
`I2C
`
`System interface
`power reset
`clock manager
`
`McBSP
`
`McBSP
`
`TWL4030
`
`Battery
`charger
`
`Power manager
`
`Audio/voice
`codec
`
`Voice
`
`Audio
`
`Coexistence
`
`NaviLink
`GPS
`
`Hollywood
`mobile DTV
`
`WiLink
`mWLAN
`
`BlueLink
`Bluetooth
`
`Data
`
`Voice
`
`TCS
`modem
`chipset
`
`Flashing
`
`Control/data
`
`Voice
`
`I2C
`
`SPI
`
`SDIO
`
`UART
`
`McBSP
`
`USB
`
`McBSP
`
`McBSP
`
`M-Shield security technology: SHA-1/MD5,
`DES/3DES, RNG, AES, PKA, Secure WDT, Keys
`
`High-speed (HS )
`USB2 OTG controller
`
`MS/MMC/SD/SDIO
`
`MS/MMC/SD/SDIO
`card
`
`Video DAC
`S-video
`
`TV
`PAL/NTSC
`
`Display
`controller
`parallel-serial
`
`SPI
`
` QVGA
`color TFT
`display
`
` XGA
`color TFT
`display
`
`TSC2046 touch
`screen controller
`
` HS USB
`transceiver
`
`Keypad
`
`Battery
`
`On/off
`
`Reset
`
`32-kHz crystal
`Audio
`
`In/out
`
`USB
`connector
`
`LED
`Keypad
`
`Figure 1. Texas Instruments’ OMAP3430 multimedia chipset for mobile devices adds circuitry to handle numerous functions—
`including graphics and video acceleration and image signal processing—to the new Cortex A8 core that ARM Ltd. designed. This
`reflects the basic approach for ARM-based mobile chips. Rather than using one chip to handle all tasks, manufacturers add separate
`circuitry to the cores that ARM designs to handle and accelerate specialized functions.
`
`SpeedStep technology, which
`dynamically adjusts processor
`voltage and core frequency to
`meet applications’ needs, thereby
`decreasing overall power consump-
`tion. Some variants also support
`hyperthreading for improved par-
`allelization.
`Intel’s approach. Rather than
`requiring separate chips for many
`different tasks, Intel has kept most
`of the functions on the Atom itself,
`which has a burst mode that lets it
`run at higher-than-normal clock
`rates for short time periods.
`Intel is used to integrating as many
`functions as possible into its PC and
`laptop chips. The company wants to
`do the same with its mobile chips but
`must avoid excessive power usage in
`the process.
`Intel has thus integrated most
`of the functionality into Atom,
`but still uses its controller hub to
`handle some tasks, such as graph-
`ics, memory, and wireless commu-
`nications.
`
`The company says that the role of
`accelerators should be limited and
`that it is best to use an x86-based
`processor as much as possible. This
`would let mobile devices use the
`same x86-based software that per-
`sonal computers run, thereby pro-
`viding a desktop-like experience and
`enabling users to work with the same
`applications they’re accustomed to
`from their PCs.
`Inside Atom. Intel uses several
`mechanisms to manage Atom’s
`power usage, including clock gat-
`ing, which activates the clocks in
`a logic block only when they have
`work to do.
`Atom contains 47 million transis-
`tors and is the smallest processor
`Intel has ever made, measuring 25
`square millimeters, compared to the
`107 square millimeters of the Intel
`Core 2 Duo for laptops and PCs.
`“We can have up to 1.86-GHz
`performance in a device that has a 5-
`inch display and can deliver four to
`six hours of battery life in constant
`
`use,” said Kedia. According to Intel,
`Atom offers more performance than
`ARM chips due the higher clock
`speed and because it keeps most pro-
`cessing on the CPU.
`Atom consumes 2 watts of power
`at top speed, 100 milliwatts at low
`speed, and an average of 200 mil-
`liwatts running a range of applica-
`tions. Intel’s Core 2 Duo uses 35
`watts.
`Atom is fully x86-compatible,
`which means it works with appli-
`cations—including browsers and
`games—written for the x86 chips in
`PCs, said Kedia. Vendors wouldn’t
`have to rewrite these applications,
`which would be required for devices
`that use other types of chips, he
`added.
`According to Intel, users will
`want PC-like experiences from
`future mobile devices and that it
`thus designed the Centrino Atom to
`support Linux, Microsoft Windows
`Vista, and Windows XP, but not
`mobile OSs such as Symbian.
`
`
`
`May 2008
`
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`T E C H N O L O G Y N E W S
`
`The BATTle plAys oUT
`ARM and Intel are coming at the
`mobile-device-chip market from
`different perspectives, said Gary
`Koerper, vice president of platform
`planning and systems architecture
`for Motorola’s Handset Unit.
`“ARM is coming up from the
`smart-phone space and trying to
`work into a mini-PC world, while
`Intel is coming down from the laptop
`[and PC],” he noted.
`This explains the different
`approaches they have taken with
`their mobile chips.
`According to Koerper, ARM’s
`strength in mobile devices is its low-
`cost, low-power core, and its design
`flexibility.
`The ARM Cortex A8 consumes less
`than 50 milliwatts of power in active
`mode, compared to Atom’s higher
`usage rates of up to two watts.
`
`Intel, though, has the advantage of
`working with many computer manu-
`facturers who want to begin selling
`mobile devices, noted Forward Con-
`cepts’ Strauss.
`ARM’s designs are licensed by
`companies that might implement
`them differently and add their own
`technologies, Kedia said. He main-
`tained this could lead to incompat-
`ibilities in the way the chips use
`third-party software.
`However, Morris said that ARM’s
`licensees work to ensure this doesn’t
`happen.
`
`A nalysts generally agree that
`
`Intel has made significant
`strides in mobile-chip tech-
`nology with the Centrino Atom.
`Also, the company can offer a rich
`ecosystem of vendors and developers
`
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`from the PC industry, and its chips
`can be used in many consumer prod-
`ucts, said Jim McGregor, research
`director and principal analyst for the
`In-Stat market-research firm.
`Energy consumption will be a
`critical factor. For example, noted
`Forward Concepts’ Strauss, “Nokia
`has specified they don’t want any-
`thing running more than 3 watts
`because [the heat that would gen-
`erate] would be uncomfortable for
`your ear.” Although Atom’s central
`processor may use up to 2 watts, he
`said, peripherals such as modems or
`application processors could push
`power usage over 3 watts.
`However, noted Intel’s Kedia,
`Intel’s next-generation mobile chip-
`set, code-named Moorestown, will
`use one-tenth as much power as the
`first generation of Centrino Atom
`chipsets, while maintaining the same
`performance.
`This would be much more com-
`petitive, according to Strauss.
`Of course, McGregor said, ARM
`won’t be standing still either and is
`already working on its Cortex A9
`processor.
`ARM has the advantage of expe-
`rience designing mobile chips, cores
`with low power consumption, as
`well as a large installed base. And
`makers of ARM-based chips have
`achieved economies of scale in man-
`ufacturing.
`Intel has considerable resources,
`x86 compatibility, and PC-like per-
`formance.
`McGregor said manufacturers will
`have to consider these factors as they
`decide which chips to put in their
`future smart mobile devices. ■
`
`
`Brad Smith is a freelance technology
`writer based in Castle Rock, Colo-
`rado. Contact him at pbradsmith@
`gmail.com.
`
`Editor: Lee Garber, Computer;
`l.garber@computer.org
`
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