>The energy footprint of those processors has shrunken considerably in the same time, which is a huge improvement for portables.
Yes and no. The Westermere, Sandybridge, Ivybridge, Haskell, Devil Cannon's line isn't really targeted for the mobile market. The shinking power budget is caused by 2 things.
1) To stay competitive against 64bit ARM processors. Intel processors are barely used in mobile devices. But eventually ARM will attempt to transition into laptop/desktop/server and compete with Intel directly, this is where lower power comes into play.
2) Feature set. New features (functionality) on chip cost not just dye space, but cost power and heat. The heat and power are the far most critical issues.
The second issue is commedically addressed in, "The Cold Winter" a satirical document about hardware engineering.
"The idea of creating more and more cores ran into an issue. Most people don't use their computer simulating 4 nuclear explosions while rendering Avatar in 1080p. They use their computer for precisely 10 things, of which 6 of things involve pornography.
The other issue was the 600 core dub 'Hydra of Destiny' was so smart that its design document was the best chess player in the facility. The issue was it required its own dedicated coal fired plant, and would run so hot that it would melt its way into the earth's core." - The Cold Winter (paraphased)
Yes and no. The Westermere, Sandybridge, Ivybridge, Haskell, Devil Cannon's line isn't really targeted for the mobile market. The shinking power budget is caused by 2 things.
1) To stay competitive against 64bit ARM processors. Intel processors are barely used in mobile devices. But eventually ARM will attempt to transition into laptop/desktop/server and compete with Intel directly, this is where lower power comes into play.
2) Feature set. New features (functionality) on chip cost not just dye space, but cost power and heat. The heat and power are the far most critical issues.
The second issue is commedically addressed in, "The Cold Winter" a satirical document about hardware engineering.
"The idea of creating more and more cores ran into an issue. Most people don't use their computer simulating 4 nuclear explosions while rendering Avatar in 1080p. They use their computer for precisely 10 things, of which 6 of things involve pornography.
The other issue was the 600 core dub 'Hydra of Destiny' was so smart that its design document was the best chess player in the facility. The issue was it required its own dedicated coal fired plant, and would run so hot that it would melt its way into the earth's core." - The Cold Winter (paraphased)