Where have all the i386 cpu's gone, long time ago...
Years ago there was a song called "Where have all the flowers gone". I sort of wanted to do an introduction based off of that. In a way the Intel i386 based architecture is not gone, but there is certainly a new major player on the scene. The Arm architecture is the new kid on the block. Originally used for embedded systems, is now coming into the main IT stream. There are desktops, laptops, tablets (aka palmtops), servers and etc that the I386 based systems have done for so long. What is the advantage of the Arm cpu's? They are cheaper, require less electrical power, and require less space just for starters. The picture represents four different arm or arm derivative based devices that are all within a foot or so of each other. Almost like a whole network of devices. None of them are the traditional Microsoft operating system based devices either. They are all using some kind of unix lookalike operating system. That is a good thing as it allows similar software t...