ARM-Based Windows 10 Portable PCs? Hell Yes

Download my great free Windows program now! Please choose:<p><pre><code> EXE installer 32-bit x86 64-bit x64 32-bit ARM 64-bit ARM MSI installer 32-bit x86 64-bit x64 32-bit ARM 64-bit ARM Portable Zip 32-bit x86 64-bit x64 32-bit ARM 64-bit ARM </code></pre> (Download my great free macOS program now!<p><pre><code> Click here</code></pre> )<p>This is already a usability problem, and adding 2 more target chipsets makes it worse.<p>Given both bandwidth and smart programmers, couldn&#x27;t Microsoft make an installer creator that works on all the above architectures and installs the right version of the program? No problem shipping 4x too much code right - most installers that are big at all, are big because of assets, not code size.<p>I guess politics vs the Windows Store team would prevent this from happening within Microsoft, but given how awful the Windows Store is and how it still can&#x27;t be used to download and install boring oldschool desktop applications, this is a usability nightmare waiting to happen - despite the obvious benefits of not being locked into a single chipset architecture anymore.

Here is the announcement from Microsoft: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.windows.com&#x2F;windowsexperience&#x2F;2016&#x2F;12&#x2F;07&#x2F;device-innovation-opportunities-mixed-reality-gaming-cellular-pcs&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.windows.com&#x2F;windowsexperience&#x2F;2016&#x2F;12&#x2F;07&#x2F;devic...</a>

Qualcomm also announced a 48-core ARM server SoC today, which is based on &quot;Falcor&quot; cores, and is to be manufactured on a 10nm node.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;semiaccurate.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;12&#x2F;07&#x2F;qualcomm-announces-10nm-centriq-2400-arm-server-soc&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;semiaccurate.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;12&#x2F;07&#x2F;qualcomm-announces-10nm-c...</a>

Interesting development. Could this be a good thing that encourages OEM to standardize on something like the IBM-like PC that we have for x86 systems so we don&#x27;t have to deal with each individual boards in Android or the traditional GNU&#x2F;Linuxes?<p>Furthermore, if the x86 emulation turns out to be as fast as they promised and demo&#x27;ed, will this kind of technology be developed for desktop linux? Is it even necessary as most apps tend to be open source and can recompile already?

&gt; ... as such, it will be late 2017 or sometime next year ...<p>Well, that could be clearer.<p>&gt; Perhaps Surface phone isn’t a phone in the traditional sense. Perhaps it is, instead, just a new kind of PC with a small—for PCs; I’m hearing 6-inches—screen.<p>This sounds a lot like what others have been doing &#x2F; try to do for a while now with Android devices (albeit not hugely successfully ... yet). So it&#x27;s not surprisingly that Microsoft is considering jumping on that bandwagon.

Interesting. I must say that I&#x27;m surprised that MS didn&#x27;t give up on Continuum after Intel hosed them by cancelling their Broxton smartphone x86 chip. MS might just be throwing good money after bad.<p>The two keys will be performance and compatibility for the x86 emulation. If they can get it to the point where it&#x27;s effectively as fast as Intel&#x27;s low power Atoms while still keeping broad Win32 app compatibility, then Microsoft&#x27;s Continuum concept is back on track to become a game changer.

I tried a surface pro as a replacement for an ipad, but I found it to be extremely frustrating. Beyond the bugs and blue screens, I found the battery life to be way shorter, and the surface to take a long time to wake up, not an instantaneous experience like an ipad, where you can forget it in a bag for 10h and use it straight away. More like a laptop.<p>Would an ARM based windows device achieve an ipad style battery life and instantaneous experience? Or is it more linked to the architecture of the system?

Photoshop x86 running on Windows 10 ARM <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.neowin.net&#x2F;news&#x2F;watch-microsoft-shows-off-photoshop-running-on-a-windows-10-device-with-a-snapdragon-820" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.neowin.net&#x2F;news&#x2F;watch-microsoft-shows-off-photos...</a>

Even assuming they can hit performance targets with this, which sounds hard but not impossible, what&#x27;s the major use case?<p>Continuum? Windows laptops with better battery life?<p>Most win32 software is going to suck on a touch screen, so I&#x27;m not really seeing this help them in mobile.

People have been speculating for the past year if Apple could switch their Macs to ARM, and keep compatibility with a emulation layer like they did during the PowerPC-&gt;Intel transition. I guess Microsoft beat them to the point... Will be interesting to see how well it performs in real life.

Presumably these will all have Secure Boot enabled with no option for the user to disable it. &gt;sigh&lt;

If this works out, this is the final piece of the puzzle for Apple moving to ARM chips in their Macs. Windows emulation is too big of a feature to leave out. Then again, who knows with Apple of late. Either way, very interesting news!

The last time we had ARM Windows machines, we got the Surface RT. I still have one of these that I occasionally bring to meetings to fool around and maybe put a ticket in with. It is not a great piece of equipment...

For me it is more like hell no. I am having a hard time getting over stuff like, you know, waking up one day and Chrome is no longer my default browser.

&gt; First, Qualcomm’s System on a Chip (Soc) designs have improved so dramatically in the past four years that their performance rivals that of mainstream Intel Core chipsets for PCs.<p>Hah!<p>&gt; And even better, Microsoft has developed an emulation technology that allows Win32 applications to launch and run unmodified on ARM-based PCs. And to do so with what I am assured is excellent performance.<p>I don&#x27;t believe it.

I am skeptical that the emulation can achieve reasonable speeds. I would like to see first that Qualcomm’s chips are even up to par with Intel&#x27;s. Secondly, can a heavy duty Win32 app like iTunes or TurboTax or Photoshop could run reasonably fast via emulation, something that has historically been a problem.<p>I&#x27;ll believe it when I see some benchmarks.

Call me cynical but this feels like another platform to be abandoned when no one buys them as per the old Windows ARM tablets. Those who bought them abandoned quickly.<p>There will probably be a crazy restriction like App Store only.<p>Oh and the whole MSI 32&#x2F;64&#x2F;ARM pile of crap as well.

We&#x27;ll see. Full Windows x86 emulation will likely be slow.<p>It will be a harder sell the second time around, too as Windows RT burned a lot of people, and fewer trust Microsoft than before.

I&#x27;d assume the .net framework would run natively

An interesting development, but it is a shame that this will require a new chip from Qualcomm, while there have been full desktop Linux distributions for several ARM chips and boards for quite a while now. Microsoft&#x27;s software is really full of bloat.