ARM and TSMC Sign 64-Bit Deal, Intel's Last Advantage Gone

The ARM v8 architecture has already been acknowledged as the great accomplishment that will pull the architecture out of the confines of the mobile market, and now we know who will help ARM Holding the most: TSMC.

In spite of what Intel and its many OEMs have said over the years, ARM Holdings has managed to enter the PC field.

Instead of being relegated to the, admittedly great, mobile market, the company now has performance to offer, in addition to low power requirements.

Truly, there were only two barriers delaying ARM's end goal of carving a piece of the PC market.

One was the lack of support for Windows, which Microsoft will correct in October, when Windows RT will be released (ARM version of Windows 8).

The second one, lack of support for the 64-bit instruction set, went away when the ARMv8 architecture strode forward.

Already we know of a 64-bit server and the Atlas and Apollo processors, to give two examples.

Now, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will mass produce and optimize the ARMv8 platform, as well as the Artisan IP, with its FinFET technology.

“The 64-bit architecture has been designed specifically to enable energy-efficient implementations” ARM reportedly said in a statement on the deal.

“Similarly, the 64-bit memory addressing and high-end performance are necessary to enable enterprise computing and network infrastructure that are fundamental for the mobile and cloud-computing markets.”

Dell and HP will be among the first with ARM servers out. We suppose some personal computers, notebook in particular, could rear their heads soon as well, but we don't think anything serious will come of the idea until the aforementioned Windows RT is out.

That said, ARM only needs to get software makers on board with its technology but, as was the case with everything else, this, too, is just a matter of time.

Via: ARM and TSMC Sign 64-Bit Deal, Intel's Last Advantage Gone