The day has come, ARM + Microsoft Windows
Over a year ago we wrote about the need for native support of ARM cored processors by Windows (and not just Windows mobile). Yesterday at the CES Microsoft officially announced it will be supporting ARM processors as well as ARM SoC’s in Windows 8, and demo’d several such systems. This is very important to the landscape of processors. Obviously software support will be initially lacking but this brings much needed competition to the PC market.
Intel and AMD have been competing with each other, and each other alone (with a few exceptions) for almost 10 years now. Bringing full fledged Windows to a new architecture is not unprecedented. Windows NT 4 ran on x86, MIPS, PowerPC as well as the Digital Alpha.
Nvidia, already very talented in the GPU market, has been working on ARM processors for a couple years now with its Tegra line, so its not surprising that they have also announced development of a ARM based processor/GPU targeted for the desktop known as Project Denver.
VIA is also adding some more competition with the release of their first dual core processor, the Nano X2, based on the Isaiah architecture. While not known for brute force, the Nano is known for its low heat and power sipping capabilities.
2011 is off to a great start and we look forward to seeing many new processors released, as well as old processors added to the museum
