Windows up in ARM against competitors

From the very beginning of the computing age, physical size of computers have shrunk tremendously. Just a decade ago, everyone was set on desktop and laptops, then it progressed to ultraportables and netbooks. Now it’s mobile devices such as phone and tablets.In response to that, operating systems are also evolving by taking up the challenge to survive on smaller and smaller devices.

While already having Windows CE for small devices with limited sources such as GPS Navigators and in car entertainment systems and also the recently release Windows Phone 7 for mobile phones, Microsoft has announced that it will make the common PC based Windows OS to be ARM compatible.

Currently  Windows are fine running on computer and laptops with Intel and AMD CPUs (x86 based), but in mobile devices the CPUs will be ARM based (made by companies such as Qualcomm or Nvidia) which use less power and gives better battery life. Ultimately, the internals of Intel/AMD (x86) CPUs and ARM CPUs will be totally different. Therefore, to make desktop Windows run on ARM, Windows drivers will have to be rewritten to make it compatible. But it is expected that the code rewriting will only be completed in two (long) years.

Perhaps sick and tired of waiting for Intel/AMD (x86) CPUs to go mobile (or not going fast enough), Microsoft is moving forward by taking the race into its own hand by modifying Windows. With ARM CPUs nowadays like the Nvidia Tegra2 having dual cores with each core running at 1Ghz, that might be enough to run Windows (with some code rewriting and optimization). With desktop CPUs (gradually) getting smaller and more power efficient and mobile CPUs (rapidly) getting more powerful, it won’t be surprising that they both will come neck to neck at each other in the future.

In the meantime, Windows is expected to give a preview of what it is working on in CES 2011. Let’s hope it’s an actual working device and not just a rendered video presentation.

source: 1, 2