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x86 vs arm on Hacker News

Across 2007–2026 of Hacker News, arm leads x86 vs arm with 177,495 mentions to x86’s 58,670, peaking in Jun 2020.

Mention-over-time for x86 vs arm, overlaid across 2007–2026 of Hacker News. Each line is a live date-histogram over ~45M posts and comments, computed with Upstash Redis Search.

x8658,670 mentions, peak Nov 2020arm177,495 mentions, peak Jun 2020
2008201120142017202020232026
Open this comparison in the interactive tool — zoom to any date range and read the stories behind each spike →

How the lead changed hands

A CPU-architecture shift: x86 dominates chip talk around 2020–23, then ARM surges with Apple Silicon and data-center ARM into 2024–26.

The stories behind each line

Top “x86” stories
  1. Nixos-unstable’s ISO_minimal.x86_64-Linux is 100% reproducible 778 points · 2021
  2. Show HN: My x86 emulator written in JavaScript 765 points · 2013
  3. Freedom and security issues on x86 platforms 713 points · 2016
  4. Apple’s M1 Positioning Mocks the Entire x86 Business Model 604 points · 2021
Top “arm” stories
  1. Nvidia to Acquire Arm for $40B 2,122 points · 2020
  2. Nvidia is reportedly in ‘advanced talks’ to buy ARM for more than $32B 1,106 points · 2020
  3. Arm China Has Gone Rogue 995 points · 2021
  4. Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm 978 points · 2025

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