ARM says the Internet doesn’t need x86

Written by Tim Smalley

June 4, 2008 | 16:13

Tags: #computex-2008 #internet #x86

Companies: #arm #computex #intel

Ian Drew, Vice President of Marketing at ARM, said yesterday that the Internet doesn’t need x86 to work with no compromises after pointing out that the problems Intel picked up on are now fixed after the processor maker established ties with Mozilla, Adobe and Opera.

During the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai, Intel highlighted 57 high-profile websites that were error-ridden on an ARM-based device and the reason cited for this was “because the Internet was developed on x86.

Considering the fact that ARM doesn’t own an x86 licence, it took issue with this and worked to fix the problems with its architecture – the errors no longer exist and Drew claimed that an ARM-based device gives “about the same Internet experience as an x86 platform.

During a follow up chat with Intel, however, the company’s representatives described ARM’s bid to keep up with the Internet as “impossible.

There are over 100 new Facebook applications released each day,” said one spokesperson. Another spokesperson felt that ARM has a huge task ahead of itself to keep up with the daily growth of the x86 application pool and as soon as it lets go, there'll be a snowball effect.

During a briefing, members of Intel’s benchmarking team asked us to all pull out our mobile phones before blasting each device saying that no two ARM-based devices are compatible with one another. Again, the reasoning was because there’s no “ubiquitous” x86 architecture behind them.

I'm really not sure that the Internet does require x86 for a 'full' experience, because since when was it a problem to run the Internet on a PowerPC-based Mac? I mean, that's not x86 compatible either and I don't remember any PowerBook owners complaining that the Internet didn't run properly. Share your thoughts with us in the forums.
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