Fundamentally, what is a PC architecture, what is the difference between x64, x86, ARM, whatever else etc. and why do they offer different benefits or drawbacks or performances
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ARM was originally designed to be simple. It’s meant to be used in places where power usage is a huge concern, like phones. It’s designed to use next to no power when it’s not actively doing things. x86/x64 are designed to give you the maximum power whenever you need it. If ARM were a nimble motorcycle, x86 is like a fully loaded semitruck barreling down the freeway. As a tool, ARM is specialized for power efficiency and give you the computing power you need intermittently. x86/x64 are specialized to give you consistent computing power all the time.
This line has blurred a lot over the years as technology has advanced. Both have started to take parts from the other and the lines have been blurred a little. But one thing that hasn’t changed is that x86 as a platform is like a collection of separate computers.
The Intel/AMD CPU, the discreet graphics card, the SSD, and your network card are effectively like different computers that talk to each other. This is why you can easily build your own AMD or Intel PC and choose what hardware you want on it. This is why you can just grab your OS of choice and install it and have it more or less work. They are designed to be swapped out.
In the ARM world it’s completely different. Everything from the CPU to graphics to the wireless radios are on one chip. It’s one fully enclosed computer where you cannot swap components. It’s not designed to do that. The OS you run on the device has to be custom-built for that device and that chip.
There is a reason for this difference, and it comes down to power efficiency. Because the entire computer on a single chip is going to use way less power than a collection of dozens of chips spread all over a tower. As a note, this is why you have to be VERY careful about support lifecycles for all ARM devices, but Android in particular because they have a shorter support window. In the x86/x64 world both AMD and Intel support their hardware for decades and there’s a very robust set of industry standards around the drivers. That does not exist in the ARM world, you are beholden to the support policies of the SoC maker, Qualcomm or Apple for most phones. This means that if there is ever a critical security flaw in the core of the OS, you cannot get an update when Qualcomm or Apple drop support for the SoC. This is a problem especially for Qualcomm phones because they purposefully limit their support cycle to 3 years from the release of the SoC. Yes there are open source efforts to extend the update window for Qualcomm based phones but it’s not guaranteed and they are reversed engineered. Which means that whoever did the work doesn’t have access to all the tools Qualcomm has to make sure fixes work and don’t introduce other security holes which presents a huge risk.
Fun fact, Intel and AMD computers already have ARM CPUs in them. They’re co processors designed to handle specialized tasks and you typically don’t interact with them directly though.
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