The most exciting 2024 tech isn't AI
2024 might be the breakout year for efficient ARM chips in desktop and laptop PCs.
2024 might be the breakout year for efficient ARM chips in desktop and laptop PCs.
I would love to see it. But I'm far more excited for RISC-V desktops, truth be told.
RISC-V is also really exciting, yeah. I'm curious if it will have to go through the same slow progression in form factors that we saw with ARM (first embedded, then phones, then tablets, etc.) or if we'll get high-performance RISC hardware more quickly.
Hasn’t RISC been around since at least the 90s? How much more time do they really need if it’s ever going to be ready for desktops?
RISC-V dates from 2011. RISC processors have been around since the 1980s, and ARM processors (in all our mobile devices) are RISC processors. Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3) is ARM-based so RISC is also in Macs, which proves it's feasible in high-performing laptop and desktop computers. But the particular appeal of RISC-V is its open licensing.
That's years away though right? Even if we get some this year, they'll be very immature. When you look at Arm based stuff, especially the Pi 5 and similar, it goes without saying that their time is now.
Yeah, you're not wrong. I'm not saying it's soon, there's clearly a lot of work to be done in the space still, I'm just excited for unencumbered processor designs.
RISC-V is exciting for chip manufacturers, not sure why end users should be. I personally don’t care whether the CPU in my system required the producer to pay a license fee.
That was 2021
