I may have confused you by saying "like an A7". Oops. 64 bit ARM is the hinge point.
Here's a relevant link.
http://www.extremetech.com/computin...-to-64-bit-will-enter-the-server-room-in-2014
Not particularly relevant. Two huge issues.
1. Apple just rolled out there ARM A7-A15 compromises implementations. They are extremely unlikely to dump that in 2014 given that the full roll out of it isn't going to occur until the Q4 of 2013.
2. There is nothing that says that can't implement A7-A15 on 20nm. In fact, Apple implemented A5 on two. Exact same reason why Intel goes Tick/Tock. arch implementation focus. Process shrink. There is no good reason to do both if taking aggressive upgrades at each step.
3. A57 doesn't have any performance track record. There is some hand waving that it may be better than current Intel Atom solutions, but Intel isn't going to have current Atom solutions in 2014. They will have the 2014 ones. ARM did not sneak up on Intel. They've seen this coming for years.
The individual Phi cores currently shipping are probably at least as good if not better at crunching float workload as A57 implementations will be able to do in 2014. Again that is now, not a year from now.
What is flawed with your little diagram in the implicit inference that those vertical bars above the A9 , A7/A15 , A57, etc. are a year in width. They haven't been in the past. There is nothing to indicate that is going to change in the future.
4. A57 implementation is more optimized along same track that A15 has started with is quasi 64 bit support. It is aimed at running multiple Virtual Machine (VM) instances. They need 64-bits far more to run multiple 64 Linux instances than for raw float output. That is the far more sane metric where ARM can be competitive with Intel. Cloud VM hosting density at low power usage.
Like I said before. lots of hand waving.... very little substance to this at all.