Old barriers to competing computer hardware could soon come crashing down, allowing industrial users the best of both worlds.
For decades, Microsoft has leaned exclusively on traditional x86 architectures to power its ubiquitous Windows operating system (O/S), while Apple and other manufacturers are optimized for ARM architecture for desktop and mobile applications.
Now, thanks to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite ARM-based processor, Microsoft is finally embracing ARM to enable its new AI Co-Pilot+ to run at the application level. This is a generational leap for PCs that will finally allow ARM to emulate x86 with a performance level on par with an Intel Core i7 processor. More importantly for industrial computers, Qualcomm’s new processing technology could deliver comparable and even superior performance to traditional x86-based systems without any increase in power consumption.
Competing Architectures
An instruction set architecture (ISA) is like a primer that tells a CPU what tasks it must be prepared to carry out, like arithmetic, logic, and data manipulation. Software code must then issue its instructions to the CPU by using the same language the ISA “taught” the CPU.
The first ISA, called x86, was developed by Intel in the late 1970s. It is a complex instruction set computer (CISC) architecture that issues complex instructions requiring several clock cycles to complete. Any software labeled as “x86 software” — which is almost all PC software developed since the advent of the Intel personal computer in 1981 — can run on any CPU that supports x86.
The first ARM-based processor was fabricated in 1985, born from efforts by Acorn Computers to create smaller chips that could run faster on smaller computers such as the BBC Micro. Acorn created the Advanced RISC Machine (ARM) architecture, a new ISA that embraced Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) architectures that issue simpler instructions that only take a single clock cycle to complete. The ARM design prioritized efficiency to enable computing on smaller devices with lower power requirements than CISC machines, but at the cost of lesser computational power compared to CISC architectures.
Source: AnandTech
Devices Supporting x86 or ARM
Deployment of x86 and ARM depends on whether an operating system utilizes the ISA. The historical lines between the two are generally clear. Windows, macOS, Linux, and MS-DOS are among the O/S that support x86. These are the O/S you find on PCs, desktop Apple hardware, and servers — systems that prioritize high performance at the cost of high energy requirements and heat generation, often requiring sophisticated cooling systems.
Android, iOS, Linux, Windows on ARM, and Chrome OS are among the O/S that utilize ARM. These O/S dominate the mobile device market by enabling low power consumption and less heat generation. ARM-based devices are also generally cheaper to produce but offer lower performance at the same clock speeds, making them less ideal for intensive computation. ARM-based O/S usually require translation or emulation to run x86 applications.
Source: Apple
How ARM Broke Its Historical Barriers
The lines between x86 and ARM definitively began blurring by 2012 with the release of Windows RT, an O/S that allowed ARM CPUs to run Windows 8. Microsoft featured the software on new mobile devices such as Surface tablets that offered longer battery life. Microsoft and Qualcomm then collaborated in 2016 to bring Windows to 64-bit ARM64 and in 2018 the first Windows 10 on ARM devices were released.
Windows 11, released in 2021, could also run on ARM CPUs. A year later, Microsoft launched Qualcomm ARM-based versions of the Surface Pro 9. By 2022, the tech world acknowledged that while ARM-based PCs still clearly lagged behind x86 machines, Microsoft was getting close to successfully emulating Windows on ARM without clearly lesser performance than native x86 machines. Today it is even possible to find technical discussions about how ARM CPUs might be used to run servers, an unthinkable proposition decades ago.
Source: CGDirector
Snapdragon X Elite Changes the ARM Race
In October 2023, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon X Elite ARM-based system-on-chip (SoC), which features the custom Qualcomm Oryon CP and a neural processing unit (NPU). The new SoC was aimed clearly at PC computing, and the tech world immediately took notice that the ARM vs. x86 equation might be about to change.
By June 2024, critics widely acknowledged that ARM was officially a serious contender against Intel’s mobile chips. Caution revolved around measurements that might not matter so much for industrial PC users, namely 3D image creation, media processing, or entertainment. In these high-performance arenas, x86 remains the superior choice. However, if we look at more practical software, and specifically one type of software of immediate interest to manufacturers in particular, we see that the Snapdragon X Elite has officially changed the game, likely forever.
Signal65, in a report sponsored by Microsoft, recently tested Windows 11 emulation performance on a new 15” Microsoft Surface laptop powered by the Snapdragon X Elite, comparing it to a Surface Laptop 5 running an Intel 12th Gen Core i7 processor and an MSI Prestige 16 EVO AI laptop running the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor — both of which are x86 machines. The results were compelling. Snapdragon Elite X provided comparable performance to both Intel chips during office productivity benchmarks and outperformed both Intel-based systems when emulating “real world” applications.
When benchmarking neural network models (relevant to vision systems for inference in industrial settings), the Snapdragon X Elite provided results three times faster than the Intel Core Ultra which also featuring an NPU. With such a clear increase in computing power, you might expect the Snapdragon Elite X to sacrifice some of the power efficiency benefits associated with ARM-based CPUs. Not according to the Signal65 report. The Surface laptop had a clearly superior battery life compared with both x86-based machines.
To sum up: ARM-based CPUs cannot only match x86 CPUs in critical PC computing fields, but can also beat them definitively in some arenas without giving up the historical advantages enjoyed by ARM over x86. ARM is now able to match or outperform x86 at a variety of tasks while maintaining less energy consumption and heat production.
Source: Qualcomm
New Industrial Computing Options
Today, x86 architecture can be found in disparate products in industrial computing, such as smart cameras or in powerful industrial computers like Neousys Technologies’ Nuvo-2700DS, which features an AMD Ryzen embedded V1605B series quad-core 15W x86 CPU.
ARM architecture can also be found in a wide range of products within the industrial computing space, including smart cameras or powerful industrial computers designed for AI applications, such as the MIC-715-OX from Advantech, which features the NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX and is based on an 8-core NVIDIA Arm Cortex A78A3 v8.2 64-bit CPU.
But can we expect the rise of ruggedized industrial computers not specifically designed for AI applications that can compete with x86 models for general industrial compute? Might we see an entirely new breed of ARM-based smart cameras that clearly outperform their x86-based competitors, forcing manufacturers to rethink how they decide which smart cameras to deploy for which applications?
CoastIPC experts stand ready now to discuss whether ARM or x86 architectures best serve your industrial needs. CoastIPC will also keep you up to date with new ARM-based technologies as successors to the Snapdragon X Elite provide new hardware options. Contact us anytime via email, phone, or chat. Check out our blog or follow us on LinkedIn to stay in the know.