Sotos wrote:boomerang wrote:they probably are...on single tasks...don't forget the space shuttle was running on commodore computers performing single tasks...
They used what they had available. MHz for MHz intel is much faster than ARM CPUs used in phones but it is nonsense to say that 8MHz intel from the 80s is faster than 1GHZ ARM from today. Smartphones today have as much power as an average PC had about a decade ago. Maybe GR thinks that intel CPUs are not used in smartphones because intel thinks that smartphones are shitboxes
Intel is trying very hard to make low power CPUs that can be used in phones and tablets.
For starters, the 80286 was 16bit… you’re thinking of the 8086 (8bit).
But anyway, the processors used in shitboxes are not fully programmable processors like the one in your PC.
They are cut-down proprietary chips with pretty much everything preset for the box it’s meant to run so there’s no comparison and it’s daft to assume that they are more powerful than an 80286 which was FULLY programmable.
Let me give you an example…
I can “train” the 80286 (via assembly language) how to handle a new type of hard disk technology (write a device driver) provided I explain to it how to detect and communicate with it, but you cannot program the processors of hand-helds to recognize new technologies like that. They don’t have an open architecture so these chips are very cheap and easy to produce.
