Arm vs. Atom?

Greg_E

Member
Nov 15, 2011
248
13
Seeing more than a few main stream Android tabkets with an Atom processor, just wondering if there are real advantages to a dual core Atom (still four threads???) over a quad core Arm based processor. Didva quick search and didn't find any direct threads discussing these options and thought it might be a good topic to discuss.
 

vampirefo.

Senior Member
Developer
Nov 8, 2011
3,836
1,394
Seeing more than a few main stream Android tabkets with an Atom processor, just wondering if there are real advantages to a dual core Atom (still four threads???) over a quad core Arm based processor. Didva quick search and didn't find any direct threads discussing these options and thought it might be a good topic to discuss.

Arm is better for android, each is entitled to their own opinion though.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Android Phone
 

leeshor

Senior Member
Dec 27, 2011
6,330
1,037
For now! ;) When/if Android is truly designed for x86 the new Atom would win hands down over current gen 4 core ARM
 

Greg_E

Member
Nov 15, 2011
248
13
Since I obviously don't know, I'll ask a simple question:

Why is Arm better? Some of the new Atom processors are supposed to be optimized for Android, but of course this may not be 100% true.

What this all comes down to is I'm trying to decide on a replacement from my a500, trying to decide if I can get away with a Windows 8, or if I still need a few things that Android offers that I can't get on a win8 device. My free mail provider has an Android app, but not win8, Vudu movie service has and Android app, but not win8. Win 8 has, well, full windows so using office like applications are easier (though with AndrOpen Office out there is one less reason), I can edit RAW image files which is not supported in Android yet, and I could get one with a pressure stylus. Yes looking for the one device to rule them all so Frodo will have to track me down to throw it in a volcano. Still leaning towards a new Android device, want a 10 inch display, and need a good processor that's faster than my Tegra 2 a500. With the Atom in the mix I thought I better find out what if it might have an advantage.
 

leeshor

Senior Member
Dec 27, 2011
6,330
1,037
Atom may be optimized for Android but not the other way around. Android was originally designed for ARM instruction sets. I did see a comparison a week or so ago that had the benchmarks on the side of Atom but it was using synthetic benchmarking meaning is wasn't a one-to-one real life comparison.
 

Greg_E

Member
Nov 15, 2011
248
13
I would have thought that most optimization should take place in the Linux kernel and after that all the Dalvik stuff would be the same, but I do know that getting Android x86 running is not as straight forward as it might seem.
 
Top