ARM CPUs are seen as very attractive for several key reasons:
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Energy Efficiency: ARM processors offer superior performance-per-watt, making them highly efficient for mobile devices and servers that prioritize power and thermal efficiency. This greater power efficiency can be seen as being more environmentally friendly and significantly energy reduce costs and usage at scale.
- Multithreading Potential: ARM’s smaller, more efficient cores enable high levels of multithreading, making ARM processors suitable for workloads that require many cores but do not need the high single-thread performance of large x86 cores. An example of this is Amazons Graviton4 ARM SoC which has 96 cores
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Cost-Effectiveness: ARM chips are cheaper to design, produce, and deploy, which has driven their dominance in the mobile market and makes them attractive for data centers looking to lower operational costs
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Customization: Companies like Apple and Qualcomm can design custom ARM cores tailored for specific needs, offering flexibility that x86 chips lack. This allows ARM-based systems to excel in a variety of applications, from smartphones to specialized servers.
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Market Adoption: ARM already dominates the mobile space, and its modular design allows for easy adoption in other categories like routers, set-top boxes, and smart TVs. With companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google potentially seeking custom server processors, ARM’s role in enterprise infrastructure could expand significantly.
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Competitive Advantage: ARM servers could be a cost-effective alternative to Intel and AMD x86 processors, providing more competition in the server market, which could lead to innovation and lower prices for consumers.