NVIDIA’s outspoken VP Jen-Hsun Huang has once again thrown some dirt in Intel’s direction. In an interview with EEtimes the controversial person claims that today’s PC market with x86 processors will die out, and the reason is ARM-based smartphones.
NVIDIA has invested a lot of money in the Tegra SoC that uses the ARM processor architecture and as the fastest spreading microarchitecture Huang is convinced that it is just a matter of time before smartphones start taking over the role of computers.
“The PC of the future will be made by new OEMs, sold through new distributors and use a new instruction-set architecture” […]”You could add wireless HDMI to it [smartphone] someday, and it could also be your set-top box.”
That smartphones have had a tremendous development is anything but an overstatement, and the performance and potential of the ARM architecture seems to grow with each day. Whether our regular PCs should feel threatened or not, we’re uncertain, but Jen-Hsun Huang seem confident they should.
Jen-Hsun Huang with an ARM-based Tegra 2 notebook
He does have a point and both AMD and Intel is in a transition phase where they are trying to make their platforms more efficient by integrating more and more essential components. The ARM architecture is already there and have a discouraging lead.
ARM is venturing into tablets and other PC like formfactors and they have already started selling in stores. This while both Intel and AMD are designing more energy efficient circuits makes a confrontation unavoidable. When and what the outcome will be we will leave unsaid, but according to NVIDIA the future has already been decided.
