“There is a monumental change occurring in the IT market. It is
perhaps the biggest change since IBM unintentionally invited Intel
and Microsoft to become two of the biggest technology gatekeepers
of our time. Of course, every year there is someone proposing a
major change in the industry. Trust me, it is really happening this
time. The change I am talking about is happening in your pocket,
purse, or belt clip. Yes, I am talking about cell phones, which by
the way is becoming a really bad description of what these devices
do. I probably use my “smart phone” as a talking device about 25%
of the time. Then there are those pad things.“Back the revolution. The connection to HPC will become clearer
toward the end of this column, but first let’s talk about “the
change.” If I were to ask you what is the most popular processor
used in phones and pads, and you said, “ARM,” you would be correct.
Now comes the trick question, “Who make ARM processors?”