Did you know that your smartphone, which you carry in your pocket, is probably much more powerful than modern and advanced computers ?! Indeed, your smart phone is more powerful than the computers that NASA relied on to the moon in 1969. But at the same time, you do not find the phone can perform the functions that the computer does, and you find it less in performance. What is the secret?
There is no doubt that many of the tasks that you can do on your computer, you can now do on your smartphone. And within the last five years, the competition has become fiercely between the top-tier smartphones and desktop computers. Although smartphones contain the highest hardware of modern processors that support artificial intelligence, and an increase in random access memory "RAM" until it reached 8 GB RAM, as well as containing powerful graphics processors, we feel that its performance is almost equivalent to a computer with average capabilities. If only that, the prices of some of these phones are almost insane compared to those traditional computers. In the following figure, we see smartphones and tablets "black line" in continuous progress and almost surpasses desktop computers:
Smartphone processors use the same terminology as computers. There are however some differences in design and components. The matter is not as easy as found in computers, as you can simply determine the type of processor in the computer and the manufacturer, and know its capacity, configuration, number of cores, cache memory, frequency, and so on. It was only Intel and AMD, and most of us can distinguish between them. It is known that these companies do not have an upper hand in the smartphone market.
As for smartphones, knowing the type of processor and its specifications is a bit difficult. I am almost certain that many of us do not know anything about the type and size of the processor frequency that you have in your hands now. Knowing the type of processor is difficult, due to the large number of types and the multiplicity of companies producing them. Although the brilliant names in this field are limited to Apple, Samsung and Qualcomm.
The difference between processors of smart phones and desktop computers
Why do we feel the difference in performance, and that smartphones are less efficient than laptops or desktop computers, even though they are almost the same to a large degree. But sometimes smart phone processors outperform those in computers?
In fact, there are a few core differences between smartphone processors and desktop processors such as:
Processor look "CPU"
When we talk about the processor for computers, our thinking goes to that square piece called "processor" installed on the motherboard. The rest of the components are distributed on the plate. We all know that the processor is the mastermind of a computer that receives, analyzes, processes, and sends data to and from all parts installed on the motherboard.
As for smart phone processors, it is called "SoC" or System on Chip, or what is known as "system on chip" meaning that many of the computer components on the motherboard are found next to the processor and are not integrated with it. While you find it integrated in smartphone processors in that small chip that includes the core, RAM, USB, memory, output and input units, a GPU unit, various transmitters, sensors, protection layers, and device features, the following picture shows what It is contained in the Exynos 8895 SoC processor on the Samsung Galaxy S8:
All of the above are contained on a single chip in an advanced smartphone processor. Hence, it is difficult to amend, change or even maintain any damaged component inside. It is a completely inflexible processor. Unlike processors in computers, it is easy for even a non-specialist to change it at any time. Attention is now focused on those SoC processors found in smartphones. Of course, there will be types that can be easily installed and changed.
ARM VS x86 architecture
Personal computers: The x86 architecture is used, which is an Intel innovation and only allows itself, AMD and VIA, to manufacture processors with which it works, and this architecture is characterized by being stronger in the execution of tasks and the ability to accept many tasks at the same time, but of course for huge energy consumption.
smart phones: It depends on ARM technologies, and the situation is different here, as ARM allows any company to manufacture processors based on its technologies, and it does not itself manufacture processors. So we see Apple, Samsung, Huawei, MediaTech, Qualcomm and others manufacturing processors. The disadvantage of ARM processors is that despite their high speed, they are functionally specific, as they receive data and process it less than x86, but they do the job quickly "because they are specific" and then return to idle mode to save energy and this is the main goal.
energy
Looking at personal computers, here you find either desk, which is connected to a permanent electrical current source, some of which have a consumption of more than 600 watts ... The second type is portable computers that come with batteries of tens of thousands of mAh, for example, the small 13-inch size from Apple comes with a battery of 14 thousand mAh. The presence of this amount of energy enables x86 processors to work at high capacity and perform many functions together, as we explained in the previous paragraph, but of course the other cost is heat, for example the temperature of the i7 processor reaches 50 times the temperature of the iPhone processor “You can literally fry eggs on the processor from the intensity of its temperature “.
As for smart phones, their reliance on small-sized batteries means careful use of energy in order to work efficiently and for the longest possible period, and the processor speed may be curtailed despite its efficiency and technological advancement in order to preserve the continuous and stable performance of the phone as happened in the case of Apple and the incident of slowing down performance. This is what we see today, because the latest smartphones do not give you the efficiency like traditional desktop computers due to its lack of constant connection to the source of electricity.
Operating systems
Operating systems designed for computers are fully featured. It is designed to take advantage of powerful and fast processors, the more powerful the processor, the higher its performance on the system, as well as the large storage capacities and large RAM capacities. It can take advantage of all these modern components, which is difficult to find on smartphones, as their operating systems, on top of which are Android, iOS and Windows Phone, do not provide you with full access to all the components of the device.
Data Entry
It is known that using the keyboard and mouse in computers gives the user comfort in using and navigating between the contents of the device with ease.
As for smartphones, the matter is different, the keyboard integrated into the screen may encounter some difficulties during use.
In your opinion, can our smartphones be developed to completely replace personal computers? Let us know in the comments.
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