BBC News - CES 2011: Microsoft shows Windows running on Arm chips

[Martin Naef]

Jay,

On 07.01.2011 09:32, Jay Vaughan wrote:
> Yeah, this is interesting (although Microsoft have been
> developing/building/running other-architecture builds of Windows,
> internally, for years), but the thing that bugs me is that they
> haven't done the Fat-binary thing so that the same .EXE will run on
> both platforms, and there's no superlative-emulation in the
> configuration (like Apple had) to make it easier for customers to
> deploy both platforms, and .. so on .. and on ..

I don't think fat binaries will be missed. The way I understand it, the 
point of Windows on ARM isn't to run old applications unmodified. Given 
that they target Windows on ARM to support new form factors (e.g. 
tablets), the UI wouldn't be suitable anyway.

For any new developments, you're likely to work in the .NET world where 
the JIT compiler takes care of any processor-specific things, so you're 
architecture independent from day 0.

Apple had to solve a hardware migration problem, whereas Microsoft 
expands into a new area. Also, for Apple the migration returned extra 
horse power that they could use up for emulation, whereas ARM support 
means downscaling things a bit. Adding the weight of a compatibility 
layer is probably exactly NOT what they want for the portable market.

> Still, it'll be nice to see ARM become a lot more viable as a
> solution for corporate deployment, if it happens ..

Absolutely.

Martin