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Smart phones these days

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  • C Calin Negru

    A smart phone now a days has way less power consumption than what a Pentium at the turn of the century had yet the amount of computing power and memory of the former is ten fold greater then of the later. How can that be explained. Why does the smart phone OS work with less juice? The resolution is the same or better so that should count in favor of greater power consumption. On the other hand there are no drivers and less hardware resources to listen to on mobiles.

    Mircea NeacsuM Offline
    Mircea NeacsuM Offline
    Mircea Neacsu
    wrote on last edited by
    #6

    As previous replies have said, there are many factors at play. One that hasn't been mentioned is the CPU voltage that went down from 5V to 1.8V or less. For a more in depth discussion see Processor power dissipation - Wikipedia[^]

    Mircea

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    • Mircea NeacsuM Mircea Neacsu

      As previous replies have said, there are many factors at play. One that hasn't been mentioned is the CPU voltage that went down from 5V to 1.8V or less. For a more in depth discussion see Processor power dissipation - Wikipedia[^]

      Mircea

      C Offline
      C Offline
      Calin Negru
      wrote on last edited by
      #7

      Thanks for your feedback everyone. I think I understand smaller transistor means less power to operate the Boolean gates ( same math at lower cost). And it’s not just mobile processors. Math on desktop processors got cheaper too.

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      • C Calin Negru

        A smart phone now a days has way less power consumption than what a Pentium at the turn of the century had yet the amount of computing power and memory of the former is ten fold greater then of the later. How can that be explained. Why does the smart phone OS work with less juice? The resolution is the same or better so that should count in favor of greater power consumption. On the other hand there are no drivers and less hardware resources to listen to on mobiles.

        P Offline
        P Offline
        PIEBALDconsult
        wrote on last edited by
        #8

        Gets power from your brain waves as it reads your mind. Hope I'm just joking.

        1 Reply Last reply
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        • C Calin Negru

          A smart phone now a days has way less power consumption than what a Pentium at the turn of the century had yet the amount of computing power and memory of the former is ten fold greater then of the later. How can that be explained. Why does the smart phone OS work with less juice? The resolution is the same or better so that should count in favor of greater power consumption. On the other hand there are no drivers and less hardware resources to listen to on mobiles.

          OriginalGriffO Offline
          OriginalGriffO Offline
          OriginalGriff
          wrote on last edited by
          #9

          All smartphones use ARM processors, and even back in the pentium days, the ARM sales guys would happily demonstrate that they could run they processor using only the waste heat from a pentium ... If you generate heat in a chip, that's using power - and the more power, the more heat. ARM chips are very well designed to use low power and to waste less of what they do use, whereas the Pentiums were designed for brute force power. Add in that the Pentium machine code was (and still is) a horrendous mess compared the RISC ARM code and you get to do more with less! Then there is the OS: Windows is a big, heavy OS that evolved from a 16 bit command line only DOS to a fully GUI monster that needs loads of RAM, loads of SSD, and loads of threads to do anything, compared with Android / iOS which often struggles to do one thing at a time well :D

          "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

          "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
          "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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          • C Calin Negru

            A smart phone now a days has way less power consumption than what a Pentium at the turn of the century had yet the amount of computing power and memory of the former is ten fold greater then of the later. How can that be explained. Why does the smart phone OS work with less juice? The resolution is the same or better so that should count in favor of greater power consumption. On the other hand there are no drivers and less hardware resources to listen to on mobiles.

            0 Offline
            0 Offline
            0x01AA
            wrote on last edited by
            #10

            Quote:

            A smart phone now a days has way less power consumption than what a Pentium at the turn of the century had yet the amount of computing powe

            Nowadays, a Pentium-equivalent CPU also only consumes a factor of less energy. I would simply call it technical progress :doh: :confused:

            C 1 Reply Last reply
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            • 0 0x01AA

              Quote:

              A smart phone now a days has way less power consumption than what a Pentium at the turn of the century had yet the amount of computing powe

              Nowadays, a Pentium-equivalent CPU also only consumes a factor of less energy. I would simply call it technical progress :doh: :confused:

              C Offline
              C Offline
              Calin Negru
              wrote on last edited by
              #11

              Yeah I have been thinking the same thing after reading some of the posts above.

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • C Calin Negru

                A smart phone now a days has way less power consumption than what a Pentium at the turn of the century had yet the amount of computing power and memory of the former is ten fold greater then of the later. How can that be explained. Why does the smart phone OS work with less juice? The resolution is the same or better so that should count in favor of greater power consumption. On the other hand there are no drivers and less hardware resources to listen to on mobiles.

                T Offline
                T Offline
                theoldfool
                wrote on last edited by
                #12

                AI. What else could do it? :doh:

                >64 It’s weird being the same age as old people. Live every day like it is your last; one day, it will be.

                1 Reply Last reply
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                • C Calin Negru

                  A smart phone now a days has way less power consumption than what a Pentium at the turn of the century had yet the amount of computing power and memory of the former is ten fold greater then of the later. How can that be explained. Why does the smart phone OS work with less juice? The resolution is the same or better so that should count in favor of greater power consumption. On the other hand there are no drivers and less hardware resources to listen to on mobiles.

                  M Offline
                  M Offline
                  Marc Clifton
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #13

                  In some ways, what you're asking has the same answer as comparing any older technology to a newer technology. At one end of the spectrum we find:

                  Quote:

                  ENIAC weighed 30 tons, covered 1,500 square feet of floor space, used over 17,000 vacuum tubes (five times more than any previous device), 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, and 6,000 manual switches, consumed 174,000 watts of power, and cost about $500,000.

                  And at the other end of the spectrum we find smart phones, SBC's like rPi's, heck, single chips that "do it all." Technological advancements are almost always about efficiency and performance, which then allows for innovation in products so we don't have to lug the 30 tons of an Eniac around to play Wordle. The more interesting question for me is, with all this computing power, why do we still complain about how long it takes for the computer to do what we want? :laugh: There must be something equivalent to a Moore's Law like "the more efficient the technology becomes, the less efficient the code will be utilizing the technology." :sigh: Or, if you prefer a "softer" version: "The more efficient the technology becomes, the more that will be demanded of it."

                  Latest Articles:
                  A Lightweight Thread Safe In-Memory Keyed Generic Cache Collection Service A Dynamic Where Implementation for Entity Framework

                  Mike HankeyM M 2 Replies Last reply
                  0
                  • M Marc Clifton

                    In some ways, what you're asking has the same answer as comparing any older technology to a newer technology. At one end of the spectrum we find:

                    Quote:

                    ENIAC weighed 30 tons, covered 1,500 square feet of floor space, used over 17,000 vacuum tubes (five times more than any previous device), 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, and 6,000 manual switches, consumed 174,000 watts of power, and cost about $500,000.

                    And at the other end of the spectrum we find smart phones, SBC's like rPi's, heck, single chips that "do it all." Technological advancements are almost always about efficiency and performance, which then allows for innovation in products so we don't have to lug the 30 tons of an Eniac around to play Wordle. The more interesting question for me is, with all this computing power, why do we still complain about how long it takes for the computer to do what we want? :laugh: There must be something equivalent to a Moore's Law like "the more efficient the technology becomes, the less efficient the code will be utilizing the technology." :sigh: Or, if you prefer a "softer" version: "The more efficient the technology becomes, the more that will be demanded of it."

                    Latest Articles:
                    A Lightweight Thread Safe In-Memory Keyed Generic Cache Collection Service A Dynamic Where Implementation for Entity Framework

                    Mike HankeyM Offline
                    Mike HankeyM Offline
                    Mike Hankey
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #14

                    When I was very young I used to watch a TV series and read comic book series called Dick Tracey. He would talk into his watch to communicate with his associates. Back then I would never have imagined that that would be possible and now... Try doing something like that with an ENIAC strapped to your wrist. :)

                    Definition of a burocrate; Delegate, Take Credit, shift blame. PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.3.1 JaxCoder.com Latest Article: EventAggregator

                    H 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • M Marc Clifton

                      In some ways, what you're asking has the same answer as comparing any older technology to a newer technology. At one end of the spectrum we find:

                      Quote:

                      ENIAC weighed 30 tons, covered 1,500 square feet of floor space, used over 17,000 vacuum tubes (five times more than any previous device), 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, and 6,000 manual switches, consumed 174,000 watts of power, and cost about $500,000.

                      And at the other end of the spectrum we find smart phones, SBC's like rPi's, heck, single chips that "do it all." Technological advancements are almost always about efficiency and performance, which then allows for innovation in products so we don't have to lug the 30 tons of an Eniac around to play Wordle. The more interesting question for me is, with all this computing power, why do we still complain about how long it takes for the computer to do what we want? :laugh: There must be something equivalent to a Moore's Law like "the more efficient the technology becomes, the less efficient the code will be utilizing the technology." :sigh: Or, if you prefer a "softer" version: "The more efficient the technology becomes, the more that will be demanded of it."

                      Latest Articles:
                      A Lightweight Thread Safe In-Memory Keyed Generic Cache Collection Service A Dynamic Where Implementation for Entity Framework

                      M Offline
                      M Offline
                      markkuk
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #15

                      Wirth's law:[^] "software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware is becoming faster"

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                      • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                        All smartphones use ARM processors, and even back in the pentium days, the ARM sales guys would happily demonstrate that they could run they processor using only the waste heat from a pentium ... If you generate heat in a chip, that's using power - and the more power, the more heat. ARM chips are very well designed to use low power and to waste less of what they do use, whereas the Pentiums were designed for brute force power. Add in that the Pentium machine code was (and still is) a horrendous mess compared the RISC ARM code and you get to do more with less! Then there is the OS: Windows is a big, heavy OS that evolved from a 16 bit command line only DOS to a fully GUI monster that needs loads of RAM, loads of SSD, and loads of threads to do anything, compared with Android / iOS which often struggles to do one thing at a time well :D

                        "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

                        H Offline
                        H Offline
                        haughtonomous
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #16

                        To say Windows today has evolved from the early DOS based products (1-3, 95) is not strictly true - Windows NT (which begat Windows XP, Vista, 7, etc) was a completely different codebase to the older 16 bit DOS based Windows for home use.

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                        • Mike HankeyM Mike Hankey

                          When I was very young I used to watch a TV series and read comic book series called Dick Tracey. He would talk into his watch to communicate with his associates. Back then I would never have imagined that that would be possible and now... Try doing something like that with an ENIAC strapped to your wrist. :)

                          Definition of a burocrate; Delegate, Take Credit, shift blame. PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.3.1 JaxCoder.com Latest Article: EventAggregator

                          H Offline
                          H Offline
                          haughtonomous
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #17

                          I'm reminded of Thackery (I think it was he), who wrote "They are making haste to build a telegraph line from Maine to Houston. But what can it be that Maine and Houston have to say to each other?" I prefer to talk to trees. They never argue, they just listen quietly and sympathetically with the occasional sigh, taking it all in.

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                          • C Calin Negru

                            A smart phone now a days has way less power consumption than what a Pentium at the turn of the century had yet the amount of computing power and memory of the former is ten fold greater then of the later. How can that be explained. Why does the smart phone OS work with less juice? The resolution is the same or better so that should count in favor of greater power consumption. On the other hand there are no drivers and less hardware resources to listen to on mobiles.

                            P Offline
                            P Offline
                            Peter Adam
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #18

                            My smartphone ruthlessly kills every application left in the background so it is super energy saver. I spend the spared energy and more instead of it. I hate when scrolled to content in the browser, left it alone, going back and it reloads the page, goes to top. I hate that I have yet to find an email client that has decent search capabilities AND works all the time. I hate when the energy-saving-maimed background processes fail to update my calendar so at first opportunity they sync nothing to my phone where originally I registered the appointment. I hate when the energy-saving-maimed clipboard loses everything a hour later. Productivity-wise a 2000's Pentium system is still lightyears ahead of anything mobile. Just there is no business in writing the software to be cramped into those systems, and there is no business in replacing the old HDDs with UFS SSDs. And there are digital nomads getting paid who "work" on mobile...

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                            • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                              All smartphones use ARM processors, and even back in the pentium days, the ARM sales guys would happily demonstrate that they could run they processor using only the waste heat from a pentium ... If you generate heat in a chip, that's using power - and the more power, the more heat. ARM chips are very well designed to use low power and to waste less of what they do use, whereas the Pentiums were designed for brute force power. Add in that the Pentium machine code was (and still is) a horrendous mess compared the RISC ARM code and you get to do more with less! Then there is the OS: Windows is a big, heavy OS that evolved from a 16 bit command line only DOS to a fully GUI monster that needs loads of RAM, loads of SSD, and loads of threads to do anything, compared with Android / iOS which often struggles to do one thing at a time well :D

                              "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!

                              P Offline
                              P Offline
                              Peter Adam
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #19

                              Quote:

                              Add in that the Pentium machine code was (and still is) a horrendous mess compared the RISC ARM code and you get to do more with less!

                              Except when order of execution matters[[CLR - .NET Development for ARM Processors | Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/msdn-magazine/2012/august/clr-net-development-for-arm-processors#running-on-arm)]. Then you fill your code with order pinning instructions, denying what ARM is. Or design a new CPU HW for it, like Apple did, and voila, you have decent x86/x64 emulation speed. But don't have an ARM CPU.

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                              • C Calin Negru

                                A smart phone now a days has way less power consumption than what a Pentium at the turn of the century had yet the amount of computing power and memory of the former is ten fold greater then of the later. How can that be explained. Why does the smart phone OS work with less juice? The resolution is the same or better so that should count in favor of greater power consumption. On the other hand there are no drivers and less hardware resources to listen to on mobiles.

                                C Offline
                                C Offline
                                charlieg
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #20

                                I despise smart phones - looking at my iPhone 11 that has gone stupid.....

                                Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.

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                                • C charlieg

                                  I despise smart phones - looking at my iPhone 11 that has gone stupid.....

                                  Charlie Gilley “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759 Has never been more appropriate.

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                                  C Offline
                                  Calin Negru
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #21

                                  Peter Adam and charlieg I’m not a fan of smartphones either. However smaller screen size helps against eye strain when you have to do something “on a computer” other then writing code ( browse the web, read and post comments on forums etc. )

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                                  • C Calin Negru

                                    A smart phone now a days has way less power consumption than what a Pentium at the turn of the century had yet the amount of computing power and memory of the former is ten fold greater then of the later. How can that be explained. Why does the smart phone OS work with less juice? The resolution is the same or better so that should count in favor of greater power consumption. On the other hand there are no drivers and less hardware resources to listen to on mobiles.

                                    J Offline
                                    J Offline
                                    jochance
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #22

                                    I think it boils down to resistance, as in ohms. Shrinking the transistor didn't just mean packing more into a smaller space, it also meant much smaller bits of metal being involved. Physics translates that to meaning exponentially less energy to manipulate the gates. It'd materially be even better except that we've eaten up a bunch of the gains with bloated insane crap like js.

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