On Oct 6, 8:22=A0pm, "Lee Waun" <leew...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "Yousuf Khan" <bbb...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
> news:48e50d1a@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> > aku ankka wrote:
> >>> Well, the issue of "how terrible it is that we are locked in to X86"
> >>> keeps coming-up.
>
> >> Forgot also that x86 isn't the best selling processor on the market..
> >> just on laptops and desktops, I recall seeing that the ARM and such
> >> sell a lot more units. Could be wrong.. anyone cares to contest that?
>
> > The ARM is the basis of most cellphones, so just by that platform
alone=
it
> > is the biggest selling chip architecture family. However, that does
not
> > mean that it is the architecture with the most applications. X86
> > architecture has the most, likely followed by the Sparc architecture.
F=
or
> > that matter most general purpose processor architectures have more
> > applications than the ARM, because ARM is used with a lot of
proprietar=
y
> > platforms, since every cellphone maker wants to be different than
their
> > competition, so they use customized OS and apps.
>
> > Yousuf Khan
>
> ARM is also listed as the processors for all Ipods and most other MP3
> players.
Some actual numbers:
http://www.epanorama.net/links/microprocessor.html
<quote>
The small 8-bit chips (little old 8051s and 6805s) are the best-
selling type of processor. This kind of smallprocessors are found
embedded in a wide varierty of electronics devices, ranging from small
gadgets and home equipment control to car electronics.Those small
controllers areflying off the shelves at the rate of more than 3
billion new chips per year(more than half of the microprocessor sale
per units). But they're not very expensive, so they're less than 15%
of the fiscal tonnage.At the opposite end of the scale are-big
surprise-32-bit microprocessors. This category includes PC processors
like Pentium 4 and Athlon, of course, but also dozens of embedded
processors such as PowerPC, 68k, MIPS, and ARM chips. Most (98% or so)
32-bit processors are used in embedded systems, not PCs. ARM-based
chips alone do about triple the volume that Intel and AMD peddle to PC
makers. PC processors are only 2% of all processors in volume, but PC
processors are 50% of all processor sales in money.
</quote>
You just don't see or even know about most of the processors in use.
And the ABI bias (anything but Intel) is painful. Or did someone
really mean to say "32-bit microprocessors" and just forgot to mention
it?
Robert.
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