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Message started by Oldfeller on 03/25/13 at 10:12:41

Title: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 03/25/13 at 10:12:41

Steam, she writes the future of gaming she does.

Steam has been mostly console centric with a few PC ports of note, but Steam has now acted to abandon the PC (or if you prefer, broaden the PC base greatly).

There were rumors of Steam boxes and Steam OS and folks have run all over the place with their conjectures. The wait is over.

Well, Steam is out with a new game. Several new games actually. You can download it, you can get it on DVDs, you can get it on removable media (like an SD card).

Steam recommends you do a full install, tell the program what sort of hardware you have if it can't autodetect everything, then load the game only if you are done with all your other programs at that time.

Steam is actually putting your windows off line and loading their own OS, which is a version of embedded linux which is basically what the consoles other than Microsoft Xbox use.

==========

Think on it a bit, what vendors like about consoles is they know totally what they are dealing with.

Steam is a game vendor that is looking towards the future and sees an OS/CPU agnostic future where as long as Steam OS can identify your hardware and run, you can play the game on whatever sort of hardware you happen to have.

Expect folks to be touting Steam Certified Gaming on their equipment soon. Using this trick, porting all sorts of console games becomes a snap.

Follow the logic, the ARM based tablets that have SD card slots will mostly boot off those card slots (and the ones that won't quickly will start doing so as Steam Certified for Gaming is a big thing that can make or break your product). Stuff your Steam SD card in place and reboot the pupper -- game time !! Ditto for your AMD or Intel chipped products.

============

I only saw 3 PC based magazines on the rack when I went to Barnes & Nobel today. Only one was current this month and it had a chip off between AMD and Intel, but what was in the first paragraph kinda blew my socks off.

They basically said this was their last chip off between Intel and AMD because AMD was on the ropes now and their big question was was AMD going to survive into 2014 as they only had 1 billion dollars in liquid assets and currently have no product that they can move to make any more money.

Second reason for this being the last chip off was Intel wasn't designing any more socket based products, all future products would be ball solder style.

==============

Linux mags on same rack had an article about Linux and Android, that the kernel fusion was complete at this time. Linaro as a standards maintainer was credited for much of this hard work.

They also mentioned that the core code differences between Google Android and Google Chrome OS were very slight, and that the same development manager was now over both products so more synergy could be expected over the next few years, with a likely merge point being the 64 bit convergence which will take place in late 2014.

Do you see the signs of the future coming clearer? 64 bit ARM chips that are so PC like they can run Nvidia's current PC embedded video systems? AMD trying to regenerate itself apart from a Microsoft code base? Intel dropping design efforts on all socketed chip products and attempting to get "ARM equivalent or superior" so as to survive in the new future?

Look for the recently leaked Microsoft Blue to quickly become Windows 9 and to be able to run the entire Windows code base on 64 bit ARM processors.

The future, she comes ......

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Pine on 03/25/13 at 11:54:45

Alas for my poor AMD!!!

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Dane Allen on 03/25/13 at 16:04:32

Fascinating!! Any update on that hullaballoo between VHS and Beta? ;D I am soo behind the technology times, I just can't keep up.

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by rfw2003 on 03/25/13 at 16:07:25

Well I guess once that happens I'll have to switch to server processors instead of the desktop ones, although I am sure gonna miss my trusty AMD's and I definitely won't like paying the premium for the intels >:(

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 03/25/13 at 19:47:38

AMD has published plans to be in the ARM 64 bit server market in 2014 (if they can tide themselves over until then with a billion $$ in liquid assets).

Nice distinction there as there isn't any real difference between a server board set and a "next unit of computing" board except the I/O ports.

And believe me, if ARM/AMD can actually do something that is smart, I can see an AMD many slotted backplane design that allows you to push in new 64 bit "server cards" to increase power or update yourself to a new processor or whatever. Use that ARM "sea of cores" technology to become cheaper/flexible, in other words.

Look out at Hewlett-Packard now, they came from a main frame & mini-frame origin so they already KNOW how to do this stuff, their oldest employees in Sr. Management grew up in that environment. HP/DEC owns the original patents, etc that apply directly here to what is coming.

So did IBM, but they put their old VAX stuff into the public domain, so look for some Linaro standards to evolve fairly quickly in this area, open standards that move right on into the Linux kernel as "how it works".

Dell is in there too, they supply data center hardware now.

A57/A53 is supposed to natively support a variable changing mixture of big/little and if your appropriate memory is located on the card with the processors and you have a STABLE and known connection backbone system you should be able to keep the same case/box for a while, just mixing up your cards to get whatever you need power-wise.

Servers are like that now, you know. They just run hot and suck lots of electricity to do it.

Most of us will still use wholistic hand held one piece devices built around Tegra 4's and Tegra 5's and Tegra 6's and we will just run the product through a 5-6 year cycle to "needs replacing". Then we will go buy us a new toy.

Only the real fan-boy power users will be making up them "super-computers in the brief case" long lived deal-i-bops using server backbone technology.

.... just shunk down all itty-bitty sized

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by houstonbofh on 03/26/13 at 21:57:54

Got any links on that steam mini-linux runtime? I was looking and could not find it.

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by rfw2003 on 03/26/13 at 22:04:29

I for one will be using the server backbone tech, once they do away with all the easy upgrade cpu stuff that is what we are used to, plus the fact the server backbone stuff will have all the I/O ports for using the add-on Raid cards and such and since it will still most likely use the same pci-e format I'll be able to use the graphics cards that are years ahead of what will be integrated into the arm chipsets.

R.F.

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 03/29/13 at 10:26:50

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/295823/scitech/gaming/steam-now-on-linux-with-60-games

You had to be following the discussion for the last year to get all of the discussions, since it is out now it isn't news really any more. All they announce is the new titles on Steam's web pages as they keep rolling out.

News is that Canonical (ubuntu) is the first Steam Certified distribution -- it has all the Steam hooks and such built into the distro from now on.

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by rfw2003 on 03/29/13 at 10:31:53

64474F4D4E47474E592B0 wrote:

it's about fricken time that one of the big ones made the jump to *nix. Now hopefully with the backing of Valve the major game makers will follow suite and start making the jump as well.

R.F.

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by houstonbofh on 03/29/13 at 22:53:13

I was in the closed beta... And I only run Linux. :) But I had not heard of a microkernal Linux for Windows gaming...

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 03/30/13 at 03:08:53

Part of it has to do with the leg work for the Steam Box (which at one time was going to be ARM based, then went to Intel, then back to ARM, then back to Intel).

Now Steam is putting out standards for Steam Certification, and whomever/whatever will put the hooks in that Steam requires (or else Steam will do it when it installs the software). Steam isn't going to chase folks any more, you either conform to the standards or your product doesn't play.

Ubuntu is there already 100% with the next release. The Ubuntu derivatives (Mint, etc.) will be there in 6-8 months with their new releases. Since the Steam hooks are becoming mainstream Linux and Linaro and others are involved, if the Steam standards do indeed become THE main stream pattern they will enter into the kernel, etc. automatically as part of Linaro's normal monthly additions.

So, standards are coming for Linux that will make it possible for Steam and others to write games for an every growing ARM / Linux game market.

Steam has clearly stated that Windows 8 is a disaster for gaming. Sales figures do indicate that folks are picking up casual use/gaming/social networking tablets as their current purchase choice instead of yet another laptop/desktop. Windows is now frantically moving towards Windows 9 as they sense they screwed the pooch with Windows 8 as folks are staying away in droves. Windows RT was a miserable flop.

Ubuntu and Google and Apple will each come out with a new generation tablet soon, as supplies of Tegra 4 and Exnos Octa ramp up. Some more of the future will become clearer as the new ARM chips now are "laptop strong" and soon Apple will have to overcome their post Jobs paralysis and release their new 64 bit super chip and their new WOW products. I would have expected the first 64 bit ARM chip from Apple by now if Jobs was still alive, but the new Apple is a different animal than it was a year ago.

===========

We see more signs that vendors are skipping over the 28 nanometer A15/A7 generation of ARM chips, or else just coming out with the very top gun of that generation right off the bat as they all see that any time spent here is going to be blown away by the first 64 bit A57/A37 chips due to the 64 bit thing.

Nobody buys a 32 bit anything once the 64 bit stuff is out.

The Chinese low end guys are issuing 28 nanometer quad core A9 chips right now (since they already have the A9 license) instead of doing a one year rush job on A15. They are spending their development time and dollars on the next 64 bit generation.

Since the old A7 and the new A37 small cores are very similar, look for the low end Chinese guys to come out quad or hex or octo with the little A37 core only -- this saves power, saves wafer space, falls in line with 64 bit new wave thing and they only have to buy the one A37 license from ARM.

And this will still be a powerful processor, each A37 will clock at 1.5 gigahertz or better and will perform the basic jobs that the current A9 chip does at similar or better throughput as far as pushing real data goes. And the "sea of cores" thing that will come in with the 64 bit says that you can have as many little cores as you like. 6-8 of the little things ramping in and out as needed will handle the current tasks we do with tablets, etc. right smartly.

The upcoming A57's at 20 nanometer will clock at 2 gigahertz or better, so it will put the A15s into the dirt right smartly. Plus the fact it has a 64 bit data throughput, etc.

So, the future, she comes ......

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 04/01/13 at 08:28:44

Guess who just bought an ARM design license and chipped into constructing a 20 nanometer level Chinese fabrication plant?

http://liliputing.com/2013/03/lenovo-may-be-getting-into-the-chip-business.html

BTW, HP is shipping their first 7" Android tablet (a relabel of a Chinese unit)

:D

This ever-exploding ARM hand grenade story is going to get right interesting when the 64 bit changeover occurs next year. Everybody is working on and planning new 64 bit ARM products, Linaro and the Linux boys are Beta testing their 64 bit ARM operating systems and all the recalcitrant graphics vendors save VR have choked over all their internal specs to Linaro at this time.

VR is still betting on Apple and Microsoft to keep them afloat, but when Nvidia jumps the recalcitrant ship you gotta wonder if the VR rat is going to drown when the good ship Proprietary goes down stern first ....

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 04/02/13 at 07:52:49

Heck, I said it was going to be interesting, now didn't I?

I didn't expect it to be quite so fast though ......

http://liliputing.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/a57_02.jpg

http://liliputing.com/2013/04/first-arm-cortex-a57-chips-near-production-64-bit-20nm-chips.html

Do read the above link, keeping in mind that all of ARM's hard macro pre-built canned designs are always pre-run at TSMC to kill two birds at the same time -- to make the large crop of demo chipsets that get sent out to all the license holding folks so they have actual hardware to work with and so ARM can prove to everybody that their hard macro designs work as promised.

Hard macro designs are GUARANTEED in blood to be produce-able at xx cost and xx yield rates and are guaranteed to run xx fast and behave just like the sample chip you were provided to do all your final development work on.

No shite Sherlock -- the chip you were given was from an actual production run on the TSMC full production process. No wonder they can guarantee the results of your future runs will be just like this, or even slightly better as TSMC gets better at it.

=========

The slow, poky, post Steve Jobs Apple had better pull their thumb out of their butt pretty durn quick and get their 64 bit products out there or they are going to be lapped by the Chinese guys again ....

=========

Also note that these new chips are laptop grade processors, it sez so right in the text.

Also note that the process is capable of 16nm production, which means TSMC is capable of lapping an entire planned 20mn production generation, going directly down to 16nm. Intel, pay attention please.

No wonder Lenovo is slapping their sack of coins down now and saying "I want in NOW".

Watch for the sneaky Chinese guys to suddenly start shipping 64 bit A53 quads or hex or octa hard macro "little" chipsets out of the blue. That is what they have done twice now on two different ARM generations, soundly beating the big guys to the punch by six months or more by simply placing their production orders to directly follow the pre-production hard macro runs. The production line exists, is manned and it has been proven out and it needs something to run, right?

The early guys can design their I/O traces and structure their boards by the hard macro specs and KNOW it will work as promised as the chips are already production tested.

Speed to market is everything in the phone world.

The A15 generation has just hit the 64 bit wall ..... and will very quickly be overcome by the least of the A57 generation sales wise.

Remember, a quad or hex or octa A53 chipset will always out-perform a dual core A57 set up cheaper/easier so don't expect anybody to do a dual core set up this time around.

Also, if the "sea of cores" thing is real you no longer have to have a matching number of little or big cores, you can tailor the combination of cores to fit the task at hand. Big/little becomes a mix and match to fit the customer requirements.

And, if you had a smart backbone, you could mix and match by adding cards of processors & matching memory.

AMD's chances of having something to sell before they spend their billion in liquid capital and go belly up just got somewhat better, provided they aren't sitting on their thumbs like Apple has been doing.

Conversely, since the Chinese are only months away from hard macro product designs and first production of saleable products, AMD is also at risk of seeing their opportunity filled by a Chinese firm that simply moves faster than AMD does.

Speed to market is everything in the phone world.

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by houstonbofh on 04/02/13 at 12:53:55

I don't think this is a problem for Apple at all. They do not sell hardware... They sell a package. One thing all Apple devices have that none of the Android devices have if upgradeablity... Your phone will get one software upgrade if that, and then be abandoned, unless it is Apple.

These are way cool products, and will do way cool things... But I wouldn't sell Apple stock short yet.

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 04/02/13 at 15:27:09

Nobody is selling them short as they still are the 800 pound gorilla in the computer world.

And they will come out with their WOW products .... someday soon .....

What I am saying is that if they drag their feet much more the Chinese will beat them into 64 bit land.

And that will hurt the Apple image.

Apple needs to focus on beating the durn fast Chinese and the innovative Google some now, as Microsoft is no real challenge to them at all in any field now-a-days.

If they don't focus some, they are going to come out both a day and a feature too late.

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 04/03/13 at 09:06:04

Note: this will be the last 32 bit Nexus tablet generation

http://liliputing.com/2013/04/report-next-gen-nexus-7-tablet-to-cost-149-ship-this-summer.html

http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20130403&t=2&i=718737224&w=320&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE9320FKX00

OK, another reason Apple needs to uncork their WOW stuff now is their very high pricing point, Apple is going to want to charge a lot for their WOW and if they wait until mid summer release period Google is going to be there with their new stuff to steal a chunk of their thunder.

Google is changing chip vendors from Nvidia Tegra to Qualcomm Snapdragon and they are going to up the specs on their Nexus 7 take #2. Price point is going down as well, better goodies, pricing at 50 dollars cheaper.

Why? Why does Google sell a competitive product at just about cost? Well, it goes like this -- it isn't sold at cost. Google sells the stuff directly to the public at a small profit, small enough that they can still support resale by all the normal retailers if they want to order a minimal large quantity at a time. Google does not lose money on Nexus products, they just make a moderate small profit.

Google is trying to get the retail chain to quit raping people (tricks the cell phone vendors have taught them over the years) and to start selling electronics using Android at a reasonable price. And to quit monkeying with the Android operating system for no real reason, it is complete enough and the skins are pretty enough and there are plenty of screen variants if you want a variant.

Tablets are only good technologically for just a couple of years before you would most likely choose to replace them.

Why would you pay $500 when you can get just about the same jollies for $150 ??? Since it is a good repeat business, why are you shooting for a 200% or better mark up? That's just raping people.

Plus, Google had originally prepared this little wizz bang as a response for Apple should Apple try to hit the same price point as the Nexus 7 with a bigger better unit (of course Apple saw this coming and came out high again on the pricing). So Google had worked out a low cost really nice wizz bang so why shouldn't they use it this year?

Which Qualcomm chipset? Who knows? Will it have a microSD slot for cheap memory expansion? Who knows? Will it have GPS? Who knows?

But, look for a perfect fit to the latest Android version, look for new WOW Android features to be fully supported, and look for the item to be a great value for the dollars spent.

Note: Google also uses the huge Nexus 7 volume to help recalcitrant vendors to decide to support open standards. Between Google's volume and Linus's middle finger Nvidia decided last year to leave proprietary standards and go totally open, so now mebbe it is Qualcomm's turn to see the light.

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by rfw2003 on 04/03/13 at 09:19:19

Plus not to mention with Android being open, all the open source community out there keeps supporting the units long after the manufacturers do. So we still get the latest and greatest flavors of Android even if the manufacturers don't send out the update to the units. Alot of times we actually get the latest and greatest before the manufacturers even send out the updates.

R.F.

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 04/03/13 at 10:10:52

Yup, Nexus 7 has always had a locked boot loader but Google has never made them hard to unlock pretty much on purpose. If the new unit is as good as the last one, look for Ubuntu and the others to have it's skirts up around its head before it actually starts shipping here in the USA. Did you know you can actually replace a battery in a Nexus 7 without having speciality case opening tools?

YES -- OPEN SOURCE IS THE WAY TO GO WITH UTILITY TABLETS IF YOU HAVE ANY GEEK TO YOU AT ALL. Nothing open source really dies, if you can find a forum that supports it that is.

My wife has no geek in her, but she has geek buddies who are all Apple users, as is every female in her family save one or two. They support her tablet uses and she has developed a lot as an Apple tablet user.

My wife also commonly sits down at my white box PC and types emails and stuff, so she is unknowingly becoming a Linux user (not that it is hard by any means, in fact what I use in Mint 9 still looks the closest thing to old Win XP of anything out there).

==============

Firefox is rewriting their core code on all their products into the RUST language instead of the GEKKO they used in the past. Rust supports multiple multiple processors and 64 bit much better than Gekko, which tends to use the first two cores effectively and lets the rest kinda idle along.

Android / Linux has already got their support ready for the 64 bit "sea of cores" thing and is in hard beta testing right now on a completed code base.

These guys had better hurry the heck up .... they only got six months or mebbe a year before they are eat up with Quad Core and Hex Core and Octa Core 64 bit this and that. And folks really ARE going to expect it to be noticeably faster when it runs their old standard stuff -- it should be, you know.

Google Chrome browser has already been rebuilt as part of Google's efforts with big fast Chrome OS laptops. This rebuild has created a fork in Webkit, which will resolve itself through Linaro's interactions within the next few years as 64 bit everything becomes prevalent.

http://liliputing.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/chromium-os-logo.jpg

http://liliputing.com/2013/04/google-forks-webkit-introduces-blink-rendering-engine-for-chrome.html

===========

Google Play Store is lousy with 32 bit apps right now, but ARM has made their designs so they will run a 32 bit app in 32 bit mode, just dual executing when the software supports such activity on a 64 bit processor.

===========

WILL ALL OF THIS CHANGEOVER STUFF BE SEAMLESS AND EASY ???? Heck no, Some apps will choke at the 64 bit changeover because they were poorly written and haven't been kept up properly. Too bad, then some new 64 bit replacement apps will take them over very quickly and they will drop off from the face of the earth and nobody will miss them.

Open source will continue to tune and improve the 64 bit experience for at least several years until ARM and Linux/Android drop the 32 bit support coverage thing and go with a straight 64 bit coverage. By then all your old mobile equipment will have aged out, or you will have to intentionally seek out 32 bit versions of whatever you use.

I am proof that the open source stuff doesn't just die on you like Microsoft's stuff did -- I am typing on a Mint 9 box that hasn't been actively supported by Mint for a while now, it just keeps on keeping on ....

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 04/03/13 at 17:23:35

http://forwardthinking.pcmag.com/none/309937-new-chip-advances-promise-boosted-battery-life

A techi-paper from PC Magazine using their sources (different viewpoint on the same items introduced a few days ago).

Seeing official sources quoted from PC Magazine as the writer helps add some "solid" to the rumors flying about .....

We are now looking for Linaro to announce another set of 64 bit conferences where they will pass out the bug lists to the bug swatter boys along with a deadline.

(shite starts to get really real about then)

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 04/03/13 at 19:57:37

Cheap Chinese Quad Core A9 chipsets run at 28nm on modern processes.

We scoff at the cheap Chinese guys and their thrifty ways, leap frogging over the new A15 generation and simply avoiding new ARM license costs and all. But are they really doing something smart instead?

http://liliputing.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/quad.jpg

Turns out these 28nm A9 quad cores can kick the butts of the Tegra 3 generation and some of the post Tegra 3 items as well. Tegra 4 outshines them, but it isn't readily available yet.

How is this possible? The chips were re-engineered to the 28nm lithography size and they picked up the 25% performance increase that comes with that turf. And, if they actually do clock in at 1.8 mhz in actual products without overheating they will actually beat out some of the early entrants from the A7/A15 generation performance-wise as well.

Next, (and this is subtle) Android and Linux are just now starting to really USE cores 3 & 4 in a somewhat more meaningful fashion. So the dirt cheap RK3188 quad core A9 is NOT just another dog, it is a greyhound. A fast hungry hot running racing hound that is held back some by poor standards support, which may get fixed sometimes during its last year of production before it (like all things 32 bit) goes down into the 64 bit dust bin ....

Last note, A9 was always a hot running little sucker at 40mn and at 36nm it wasn't much improved. It is a bit cooler running at 28nm and a bit more reliable accordingly. The early dual core A9 products at 40nm got a well deserved rap for overheating and dying early.

This bad rap might not play for the 28nm RK3188 quad core A9 as they have 4 cores instead of just two to split the workload against and 28nm traces run shorter and cooler than longer larger 40nm traces. So far the RK3188 have no widespread reports of early demise issues (yet). Plus a lot of the designs have much improved heat spreaders and vent holes compared to the early A9 single and dual core designs.

RK3188 is currently sliding down its pricing slide towards the "cheap" end and availability for the chipset is going up as production bobbles all get smoothed out. It may wind up being the A10 of the Chinese products of 2013-2014 (right up to when the 64 bit wall rolls up and takes all the 32 bit stuff out completely).

Title: Re: The future, she comes, Steaming right along
Post by Oldfeller on 04/04/13 at 05:15:18

It is Android time again, time for Google to put up another funky cute statue in front of the Android Building. This one will have a pie motif.

Next month Key Lime Pie Android 5.0 will be announced and it will have some new user features to tout, but the most important changes are under the hood up in the engine compartment. Extra cylinders in the engine no less ....

Key Lime Pie will be intentionally built for quad core and up, it will ACTUALLY USE all the cores of the current generation of quad core (up to octa core) chipsets in a better balanced big/LITTLE performance system. It will also be built on purpose to get more effective use out of the Mali400 550ghz quad core video graphics set which is built into the VERY LEAST of these new quad core chipsets.

Linaro has been hard at work unifying the code base and the kernel will also carry graphics drivers for Nvidia and the others who have choked over their code in the last 6 months or so.

This will be about the last pure 32 bit Android release where folks are completely focused on the current 32 bit android world of stuff.

From now past this one you can expect efforts to be more towards the 64 bit changeover which will start to take place next year. The 64 bit panic will start in earnest when the first 64 bit products hit early production and the software begins to be programmed for 64/32 bit execution modes.

Since many users will be adverse to buying 32 bit anything once the 64 bit shows up on the scene, expect some very good pricing from desperate tablet and chip folks trying to get you to buy up their existing stocks of 32 bit stuff before it gets rancid.

Also expect to see some marginal suppliers fail to buy into a 20 nanometer or lower (64 bit) fab facility and by that one bad decision simply choose to die off.

Lenovo isn't the last vendor to suddenly have to decide to play or to pass. There will be more. Hard truth is, if you can't get chips you are out of business.

And if anybody should decide to try to stick with old processes and mock themselves up a "new" processor with bigger traces -- they are deluding themselves as within a year ARM will be down at 16nm and below and you will be 4 generations behind and stuck in a faked up 32 bit mode in a 64 bit world.

Even the RK3188 is using a "last year's 28 nanometer process" and they know they have only bought themselves an additional year of low end production by doing that.

Remember, last Christmas the Tegra 3 was king of the hill performance-wise, now the least of the cheapie Chinese quad core chips kicks its butt by a good margin.

;) Hey Intel, what's your production nanometer size again, buddy?

The future, she comes, implacably rolling her big spiked wheels over the crushed bones of the slow and uncompetitive ....