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FEATURE

TYPES OF PROCESSORS:

1 iTech / November 2013

Processors: choosing the

right one

1.ARM processors are named after the company that designed them: Advanced RISC Machines, Ltd. These are described as 32-bit microprocessors that require little power but are also slower processors. ARM processors are used in almost all small battery-operated devices such as mobile phones, multimedia players, tablets, or digital cameras.

2.“x86” processors are faster than ARM processors but require more energy. Thus, these processors are used on bigger devices such as laptops, desktops and servers. Most x86 processors are made by two companies: Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

TREND: In the past, if a user wants a faster computer, he would have to get a second processor, which also needed a second motherboard to function properly. This method is more expensive and space-consuming, making it inefficient in the development of laptops. An ongoing trend is the use of what we call multi-core processors, wherein manufacturers place multiple processors in a single chip, and allows the processors to share resources with a single motherboard instead of needing two or more motherboards. Lately, companies compete to increase the amount of processors they are capable of placing in a single chip.

“The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors 2011, a roadmap forecasting semiconductor development drawn up by experts from semiconductor companies worldwide, forecasts that by 2015 there will be an electronics product with nearly 450 processing cores, rising to nearly 1,500 cores by 2020.” (http://www.zdnet.com/cracking-the-1000-core-processor-power-challenge-7000015554/