On May 20, 89, Palm Entertainment Technology Company released a news that shook the industry, the next generation of handheld platform, that is, the third generation of Palm Entertainment, will use the processor developed by the ARM team.

As soon as this news was announced, it caused a lot of repercussions, and the two generations of handheld computers that have been released by Palm Entertainment have been released. The first generation of palm entertainment, the screen is not enough, just a 3-inch TN LCD panel. By the time of the second generation, the screen was raised to 4.5 inches, bringing a better visual experience. And an LCD screen is also used.

The two handheld consoles have now become the most mainstream platform for handheld game consoles in the world.

The processors of the previous two generations are low-power versions of XRM chips, which have a big gap in performance compared with the latest XRM chips, but in terms of battery life, they have a comparative advantage.

However, the sudden decision to replace the CPU of the third-generation handheld, although it is only the CPU of the handheld, but considering that the user base of each generation of handheld is hundreds of millions, and the game developer also needs to adapt to the new platform, is the risk of replacing the chip too great?

However, this is also painful, if only the number of current XRM user groups is considered, and the future mobile smart terminal market is not considered, then it is no problem to use XRM.

However, XRM is becoming more and more high-performance, and power consumption cannot be taken into account. It is precisely for this reason that there must be a real low-power chip, which represents the direction of the future mobile terminal.

Even if ARM and XRM are not compatible, it will not affect Lin Qi's decision, he must go to ARM!

"First of all, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this event, and thank you to all the players who have been our food and clothing. ”

Lin Qi's brief opening remarks made the atmosphere a lot more lively, and many people began to cheer, and after a while, the scene quieted down.

"As you know, our new venture electronics group started with a game business. Arcade machines, handheld machines, and later, the birth of the Pangu computer platform. Compared with the hardware development of arcade machines and Pangu computers, the hardware development of our handheld computers is relatively slow, in addition to cost considerations, more importantly, the handheld is more important than performance, power consumption. We've been optimizing the XRM chip for the handheld version, but we want to improve performance while controlling power consumption. In this way, the player's handheld can play longer on a single charge. However, in terms of the current mobile phone battery, 4 hours of gaming experience is already very good. In this, the main thing is the power consumption of the hardware, which has not been better. Therefore, in the future, I hope that handheld computers can have chips with relatively low power consumption and high efficiency. ”

"The ARM team started relatively late. However, they are oriented towards the low-power chips that I admire. Therefore, the next generation of our handheld will use ARM's CPU chip and embed it in the SOC of the handheld, so as to achieve a lower power consumption level and a better handheld gaming experience than the previous chip......"

"In the next time, I will hand over the era to Hosser, the representative of the R&D team of the ARM architecture processor, and ask him to say a few words to everyone. ”

Lin Qi then handed over the right to speak to Hosser, the main leader of the ARM team.

Joset's image is very much in line with today's scene, dressed in a light short fight, with slightly long hair, and dark circles under his eyes are still as heavy as ever, but his mental state is very good.

After a short period of adjustment, Acorn had some exchanges with the technical staff of the new start-up electronics company, and originally, the ARM team was insufficient and the accumulation was insufficient, so the research and development was relatively slow. And after the XRM team was given some information to share, the ARM team has grown faster than it has historically been.

At the same time, the ARM architecture is not necessarily the same as the historical ARM, after all, the current ARM also absorbs a large number of architecture and patent technology licenses from XRM.

However, ARM is definitely selective in its absorption, specializing in low power consumption, rather than doing a second XRM chip.

Only by specializing in low power consumption can we seize the development dividend of future mobile terminals.

The CPU of the handheld is just the touchstone of ARM. In addition, through the CPU R&D order of Zhangyu, the ARM team has a clearer R&D direction and avoids R&D products that are out of the market.

Hoser cleared his throat, briefly introduced himself, and quickly opened up the topic.

"As we all know, the development trend of computers is from mainframe to minicomputer and then to microcomputer. After that, it's a handheld that can be held in the palm of your hand. According to our discussion with Mr. Lin Qi, the smart terminal in the palm of your hand will inevitably produce a different software and hardware ecological environment from the current personal computer in the future. Copying the ecology and applications on the current computer does not meet the user experience and needs of mobile terminals.

Mobile terminals, because they can't be used at all times, generally use batteries, so we try to reduce power consumption as much as possible in order to make the hardware achieve a longer battery life...... It is precisely for this reason that what ARM wants to do is to make laptops, handhelds, and other terminals that use batteries last longer with only batteries...... Of course, our performance may not be strong at the beginning, but we will continue to improve our performance according to the law of Moore's Law. It's just that we consume less power. Maybe other chips need 20 power consumption, but we can achieve 1 low power consumption, and the power consumption is the ultimate power consumption, which is the pursuit of our team......"

"In the future, ARM chips will not even be manufactured in-house, but will choose the appropriate opportunity to sell our patented ARM architecture technology to semiconductor chip manufacturers around the world, so that professional manufacturers can produce first-class chips without developing chip architecture. ”

Horser came up and threw a bombshell.

"Mr. Lin, what Horser said is so good!"

"Low enough power consumption will produce lower heat dissipation, so this low power consumption is especially necessary in smart terminals without heat dissipation conditions. Low enough power consumption for longer battery life, for example, a laptop with lower power consumption can expect to last more than 10 hours. The power consumption of the handheld is lower, and the battery life is also expected to be doubled!"

Lin Qi heard a burst of energy below, although the kid Horser said very simply, but he hit the nail on the head at once, and later many people compared X86 and ARM, but there is indeed an essential difference between the two, ARM is mainly suitable for mobile platforms, most of the programs on these platforms have simple logic and single function, and they do not have high requirements for complex calculations.

The ARM processor positioning is different, when it was developed, it was defined as an embedded platform, the main role is to cope with lightweight, a single purpose of the program, throughout the development history of electronic devices, the application on mobile devices is handy, the experience brought to people is even more surprising, and X86 is not for the mobile platform service, but positioned on the desktop and server, such a platform, applications have a common feature, basically are compute-intensive, such as multimedia editing, scientific research computing, Simulation and so on.

Therefore, it is unscientific to compare X86 and ARM simply in the mobile environment, or in the case of desktop and server, due to the difference in positioning, ARM processors are based on reduced instruction set architecture. A small number of instruction sets simplifies the design of hardware logic and reduces the number of transistors, which means low power consumption. For the application of the mobile platform, it is precisely this way of processing that is needed, the application is simple, the control flow of the program is not complicated, and it does not require high execution efficiency, so the hardware logic such as pipeline and branch prediction is relatively simple, and these factors are superimposed, and there is no need for too many transistors, because the energy consumption can be greatly reduced.

In addition, mobile devices are different from computers, mobile devices have energy limitations, and ARM has made corresponding adjustments, and the power supply is specially designed as an important part. For example, the processor of a mobile device usually only runs at a very low frequency when it is in standby, and can even temporarily shut down idle cores and coprocessors to reduce power consumption.

For example, later ARM even designed a division of labor between large and small cores, when high performance is not required, small cores are used to calculate, and large cores are on standby to rest, so as to save power. When the operation of the small core is not enough to support it, the large core is switched.

"I use a more unprofessional statement to tell you that the newly developed ARM architecture processor, in fact, is simply low power consumption, that is, to make the battery more durable, and at the same time, it will be optimized with the handheld, so that everyone can use low-power CPU, there will also be a smooth gaming experience. ”

Hoser thought for a moment, gave up the explanation of the technical terms, and threw out the ultimate.

"Uh...... This statement is really a bit simple and crude, so it is much easier to understand. "I just finished praising Horse, and my backhand was shocked, and I sweated a little shyly.

A whistle immediately sounded below, and it seemed that he was not satisfied with Horse's statement, as a fan of palm entertainment, he also knew that handheld games could not be compared with desktop consoles. Players use handheld consoles, and more importantly, they should carry them with them to pass the time, and experience masterpieces in a non-moderate way.

For example, during the trip, use the handheld to pass the time, just half of the time, the journey is not over, the power is gone...... That's embarrassing!

It is precisely for this reason that one of the major experiences that affects the handheld is battery life!

Although, players can spare batteries, but it is too unreasonable to go out with a bunch of batteries to play handhelds. Therefore, improving the endurance of the handheld itself is the most important.

ARM is not famous, but it ...... If it really achieves lower power consumption, then it will be used in palm entertainment terminals in the future, and it is bound to be successful!

Therefore, many players and media who know about handheld consoles have given Horser a fierce applause for his speech.

This is not to say that everyone is already optimistic about ARM, just because, everyone thinks, low-power chips, are indeed the chips needed for portable devices!