cellphone-sized X86 PC motherboard potential OpenMoko platform?

[Thomas Gstädtner]

That would explain why Intel sold XScale :)
IHMO there is a direct relation between the instruction set and the power
consumption:
The more complex a processor is the more power it needs.
Let's explain it the easy (and not fully correct) way: When you want to see
the complexity of a microprocessor in numbers you can take the number of
transistors.
ARM9 Chips are under 10 million, VIA C7 about 25 million, Intel Core2Duo
about 300 million, IBM Power6 800 million.
This all are modern (except the ARM) and powerful processors and the more
transistors they have, the more power they need.
Of course there are chips with less transistors needing much more power,
there are several reasons for this.
But as long x86 is more complex than other architectures it will need more
power.
Well, I'm definately not a expert, if one reads this, maybe he can explain
:)

P.S. Current XScale are still producesd in 180nm, Intel is down to 65/35nm.
The leakage current may be higher in ARM/XScale devices than it could (or
should) be.

2007/6/10, Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller <hns at computer.org>:
>
> > So I still see no reason for having a energy comsuming x86-monster
> > in my phone. :)
>
> If I read all the rumours around iPhone and new UMPC platforms
> correctly, Intel is working heavily on lowest power versions of x86-
> Instruction set compatible CPUs.
>
> And IMHO there is only a very weak relation between a processor's
> instruction set and its power consumption.
>
> Nikolaus Schaller
>
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