SleepyEgg

The forthcoming Intel Developer Forum will double as a coming-out party for the company's 32nm fabrication process, and, if you've been following Ars' coverage of the mobile space since 2007, then you know that 32nm is the point at which an x86 chip can reasonably be crammed into a smartphone of non-embarrassing size and battery life. (Intel seems to believe that the smartphone threshold is 45nm, but I don't see it.)

This isn't to say that 32nm will magically put an x86 system on a chip (SoC) neck-and-neck with a 45nm ARM SoC in platform-level power draw, but it probably will mean that if you absolutely must use x86 for your smartphone (for whatever reason), you'll finally have that option. The problem is that it's just not at all clear that there's a smartphone scenario that absolutely requires the insurgent, x86, to unseat the incumbent, ARM. I'll have more to say on why this is the case, and why I've come around substantially from my original x86 uber alles stance, in a forthcoming RISC vs. CISC retrospective.

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