In which I post about a TL9 solar system

[Say, it isn't that bad!]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Two reasons, really:
(1) Making their own processor so they make more money on the hardware. ARM's long been in the business of providing processor cores to people doing their own ASICs. They don't sell a lot of standalone processors.
(2) Power efficiency. Intel's made a lot of improvements in that metric, but x86 has always been more about flagship processing power. ARM, on the other hand, has a customer base of people doing embedded devices, as well as mobile ones. To that market, power efficiency and low cost generally matters more than top-end performance. Apple laptops need to save power more than they need maximum MIPS, as do iPhones.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

ARM doesn't make transistors any smaller than anyone else. In fact, transistor size comes from the chosen process; ARM's stuff is one level higher up.

That's exactly what I said, with the added note that RISC architecture uses fewer transistors than CISC architecture.