January 5, 2011
By Stuart J. Johnston
At an invitation-only press conference Wednesday, Microsoft demonstrated that the next version of Windows — reportedly code-named Windows 8 — will support so-called “systems-on-a-chip” (SoC) architectures.
These include, as has been rumored in recent weeks, ARM SoCs.
The ARM processors will be built by NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, according to Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows and Windows Live Division.
Microsoft’s announcement came during the unadvertised Microsoft press conference a day before the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) officially begins in Las Vegas, and just hours ahead of CEO Steve Ballmer’s keynote address.
Additionally, existing chip partners Intel and AMD will continue to work on low-power versions of their existing x86 architecture CPUs, which already support Windows. That presumably also includes Intel’s Oak Trail processors.
What Microsoft showed, however, was far from a beta test version of Windows 8, Sinofsky cautioned.
“Today’s demonstration represents the first showing of the next release of Windows. What we showed was a technology preview of how Windows can adapt to run on SoC architectures,” he said in a statement.
Microsoft’s debut of Windows on an ARM architecture had been rumored in recent weeks as a significant strategic move onto more power-efficient platforms.
In fact, in July, Microsoft confirmed that it had expanded its license with CPU design firm ARM. ARM processors are the dominant CPUs used in mobile phones. However, Sinofsky wasn’t talking about Windows Phone 7, which began shipping in early November.
“The technology demonstration included Windows client support across a range of scenarios, such as hardware-accelerated graphics and media playback, hardware-accelerated Web browsing with the latest Microsoft Internet Explorer, USB device support, printing and other features customers have come to expect from their computing experience,” Microsoft said.
Microsoft also showed off its Office productivity applications suite running on ARM-based devices.
“Microsoft Office running natively on ARM … was shown as a demonstration of the full depth and breadth of Windows platform capabilities on ARM architecture,” the company said.
Just when an ARM-based version of Windows will actually appear, however, is still very much an open question.
“What we showed today was a technology preview of how Windows can adapt to run on SoC architectures. We are making this announcement now to enable our silicon partners, including new ARM partners, to collaborate across the ecosystem to bring innovation to market with the next version of Windows,” Sinofsky said.
Sinofsky declined to give any further details about what has been referred to for more than a year as Windows 8. Given Microsoft’s release cycle, though, it is not expected until 2012 or later.
However, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer did announce the beginning of Windows 7’s beta test during his keynote speech at CES 2009.
Ballmer’s keynote will be streamed live over the Web at 6:30 p.m. Pacific time on Wed., Jan. 5
Stuart J. Johnston is a contributing writer at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on X @stuartj1000.