Jan 282010
 

Apple introduced its greatly anticipated tablet computer, the iPad, yesterday.  It was impossible for the product to meet the unbelievable hype surrounding the computer’s debut, but even taking this into account, the reaction to the device, which will not ship for months, has been mostly negative.  Critics point out the iPad’s lack of multitasking, the low resolution XGA 4:3 screen, the clunky aesthetics (very unusual for Jobs-ian Apple), the lack of standard ports, no support for Adobe Flash, the high price compared with more capable netbooks and the awkward “iPad” moniker.

But few if any observers have mentioned that the iPad is probably very underpowered compared with much cheaper netbooks.

The Apple iPad uses a custom, 1GHz Apple A4 system-on-chip (SoC).  While details are lacking, the microprocessor is probably either the ARM Cortex-A8 (a superscalar design a little like the Intel Atom, but sans HyperThreading) or Cortex-A9 (an out-of-order superscalar design superficially analogous to the VIA Nano).  If that is the case, this explains why Apple chose to forgo multitasking because ARM chips are very slow.

ARM has been very successful at avoiding direct, objective performance comparisons of their chips with x86 counterparts.  However, I’ve been able to test an 800MHz ARM Cortex-A8 running Ubuntu Linux and compare its results to an 800MHz AMD Mobile Athlon and a VIA Nano L3050 downclocked to 800MHz.  The x86 systems ran the same version of Ubuntu Linux as the ARM box.

While the Nano and the Athlon are close to performance parity with each other, the ARM Cortex-A8 is less than one-half as fast as either x86 chip.  Moreover, the ARM CPU is much weaker on floating point calculations, providing lower that 25% of the performance of either x86 chip.

Worse, the ARM system frequently becomes unresponsive for several seconds at a time.  And even though I only ran the ARM system at 16-bit XGA resolution while the x86 systems ran at 24-bit 1080p resolutions, both x86 systems trounced the video performance of the ARM box.

After using the ARM Cortex-A8 Ubuntu system, it is safe to say that people migrating from x86 netbooks (which typically use 1.3-1.6GHz x86 processors) — or, heaven forbid, thin-and-light notebooks — will be very disappointed with the performance compromises they will encounter from stepping down to ARM.

So if Apple is deploying a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 in the iPad, overall performance will be worse than a 500MHz x86 chip — sometimes much worse.  And that level of performance won’t make many people happy.  For Apple’s sake, if the company is indeed using an ARM design in its iPad, let’s hope that they at least chose a multi-core Cortex-A9.  BSN* confidently claims that this is indeed the case.

I’m trying to get my hands on an ARM Cortex-A9 system.  The Cortex-A9 will boost performance over the A8 because it adds an Out-of-Order engine which reduces pipeline stalls.  However, I expect a 1GHz Cortex-A9 to be no faster than a 600-650MHz x86 counterpart at best.

These results don’t surprise me because several years ago when I was working at Centaur I compared the performance of an Intel XScale chip against a VIA C7.  The C7 creamed the XScale even though the ARM chip ran at a slightly higher clock speed.

I’m convinced Intel sold off XScale to Marvell because the chipmaker recognized that this performance deficit would be untenable once ARM chips inevitably began competing with x86 designs.  Of course, Intel’s response was to create the highly successful Atom.

I’m trying to get permission to publish the ARM Cortex-A8 results.  Check back in a few days if you are interested.

ARM CPUs certainly have their strengths, but raw performance is not one of them.  They will face very stiff competition as they go head-to-head with much more powerful x86 designs.

Jan 282010
 

I received the following letter last night from a listener to my Radio Liberty interview.  I asked her if I could publish her note and she agreed to let me do so if I withheld her identity.  Here is her note in full.

Hi again, Mr. Smith.

I had to listen to the Dr. Stan broadcast re the Georgia Guidestones again. Something in my spirit is so stirred up. I do listen to most of Dr. Stan’s speakers, but I don’t remember when the spirit in me has been so stirred up.

An aside: I, too, have 5 wonderful children; I raised them by myself.  Well, my only son drowned a few months ago, and he is with the Lord, but he was the one who even knew more than I.  He had been following a lot of things for about 25 years.

Anyway, the Lord seems to show me things that are going to happen from time to time.  Believe me, I am just a “Joe Blow” middle-aged mom, but I have led my 30 years of being born again by just following our Lord.

I am going to risk sharing some things with you.  You are a scientist, but I believe He wants to use each of us together as He will. I am nervous here, so, Lord, I ask that you guide what I share with my brother, and let him judge by Your Holy Spirit.

Some things He has shown me have come to pass, and I will just say a few “bottom lines,” but these were all shared with friends and family before they happened, and I am sure I am not the only one this happens to.

* I foresaw the Lord taking the pastor of the largest churches in our state capitol.  The Lord had me go to warn him, but to no avail.  He did die 6 months later. There are many other details that I won’t go into.

* I saw what happened to the Twin Towers a couple of months prior to 9/11 in another morning vision, I guess you’d say.  Also detailed.

* I saw the tsunami, also in similar manner a couple of months prior to the event.

Now, I want to ask you, what type of weapon disintegrates living things but not buildings? [ed: a neutron bomb, or perhaps a bioweapon]  This I saw in detail, but He protected me. I was left standing, even though the person next to me was vaporized like so much ash that floated to the ground. It came in a huge wave disintegrating all living in its path.

And our country being invaded from the southern border by hoards in tan shirts and pants, and some with Uzies. But again, I was protected, meaning His true believers, I think.

Again a huge mudslide along the Mississippi River following a nuclear explosion up in the N.E. (it was set off on the ground with foreknowledge, because I knew that the President and his band were gone from that area before it happened).

The eruption of Mt. Hood, that I see clearly from here, and possibly more in the string of mountains that go down the Pacific Coast.

I know this sounds all wild.  I am just telling you what I believe his Holy Spirit has shown me.  There are so many false words out there, and I have seen alot of that. I just needed to share with someone whom I think the Lord is also using to warn. I have not known what to do about any of this except pray and ask others to pray. Well, I don’t know about all this, but there you go, Mr. Smith. You might think I’m another nut, but people who know me, I think, would say that I am careful not to add one word more or subtract one word.  I would fear that.

Wouldn’t expect an answer, and you could just chalk it up, but we ask the Holy Spirit to witness.

Thank you, and may the Lord continue to use you by His power that works within you for His purposes.

Oh, I also feel that it will not be our Lord’s hand in a lot of the coming catastrophes, but I think He will be blamed.

Respectfully, Anonymous