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Marco Chiappetta

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Microsoft Reveals More Details on Windows on ARM

Many details regarding Windows on ARM, or WOA, are yet to be disclosed, but Microsoft continues to disseminate a plethora of information via its Building Windows 8 blog.

By Marco Chiappetta on Thu, 02/09/12 - 7:00pm.

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When Microsoft first revealed that it planned to create a version of Windows for ARM-based devices at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, details of the OS were scarce at best. In the past year or so that Microsoft and its partners have had to work on Windows on ARM, however, far more information has trickled out from various sources.

Today in a post on the Building Windows 8 Blog though, Microsoft disclosed many more details regarding Windows on ARM, or WOA, as it is known. In the post, applications compatibility, beta releases, hardware test vehicles, and other details regarding the user experience are all discussed. There is a video available in the post as well that shows just how smooth the OS is already running on early test vehicles from ARM-based SoC developers NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and TI.

Windows on ARM Running on Tablets from NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and TI.

“Using WOA “out of the box” will feel just like using Windows 8 on x86/64.”, says the blog post. “You will sign in the same way. You will start and launch apps the same way. You will use the new Windows Store the same way. You will have access to the intrinsic capabilities of Windows, from the new Start screen and Metro style apps and Internet Explorer, to peripherals, and if you wish, the Windows desktop with tools like Windows File Explorer and desktop Internet Explorer.” We have postulated in this very blog that Microsoft must keep the user experience consistent across a broad range of devices, both ARM of x86 based, for Windows 8 to be as user friendly as possible. And it appears that is exactly the plan.

Some went so far as to say WOA could be the death knell for the “WinTel” alliance, but it appears that hypothesis (like so many others related to the PC) is grossly inaccurate. Although the post deals mostly with Windows on ARM, this tid-bit bodes well for Intel and AMD and by extension desktop PC makers, “We have had a deeper level of collaboration with Intel and AMD on the full breadth of PC offerings than in any past release. Windows 8 innovations on powerful and richly capable x86/64 processors, and work on new low-power processors such as those that Intel demonstrated at CES, require an equally strong commitment, even larger engineering investment, robust new designs, and improved architecture for Windows across these platforms. While discussing our engineering for ARM processors, it is important to keep in mind that in addition to all of the new work for the ARM platform we have done, much of the work discussed in this post applies directly to the x86/64 platform and Windows 8 as well.”

An ARM-Based SoC Shown at CES 2011 (image souce: Microsoft)

In addition to being tuned for touch input and power resource consumption, Microsoft also disclosed that the Windows on ARM beta would arrive alongside the upcoming consumer preview release, slated to arrive at the end of this month. Unlike the desktop release, however, the WOA beta would only be offered on a limited number of test devices in a closed, invitation only program for developers. Another interesting piece of information is that the WOA beta will be running on the same development branch as the x86/64 version of the OS. Doing so should allow Metro-Style applications already in development to behave similarly on both versions of the OS.

As for application compatibility, what’s been known for some time was reiterated in the post. Both WOA and x86 versions of Windows 8 will be able to run the same Metro-Style apps, but WOA does not support running, emulating, or porting of existing x86/64 desktop apps. With that said, Microsoft did say that WOA optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote (with full document compatibility with x86 version) will be available as part of Office 15.

Microsoft’s goal is to see new Windows on ARM PCs arrive at the same time as desktop PCs running Windows 8. Although it’s too early to say that Microsoft will achieve that goal, early looks at WOA are promising.