ARM PCs Appealing to 40% of PC Makers

The ARM architecture may be a bit tricky to implement on the enterprise sector, but the consumer front is somewhat more manageable and, from what surveys suggest, system makers feel the same way.

Financial services firm Morgan Stanley, according to Focus Taiwan, recently conducted a survey on this very matter.

The study followed 30 PC makers and tried to establish how great an interest there was in ARM personal computers.

Media tablets and smartphones outright favor AMD, but they already have operating systems and many programs, apps, games, etc.

The situation is not the same for the larger PCs, notebooks and desktops alike.

The ARM architecture does not support Windows programs, for the most part, and they also don't have a high enough performance to justify the mass development of new ones (or to start implementing support for it in those that exist).

Still, at the end of the survey, there were quite a few who said they at least wanted to build ARM PCs within the next three years: 40%.

That time frame should be enough that software makers will get to make at least some compatible programs.

Games, at least, aren't much of a factor, since the high-tier titles need more prowess than ARM can offer at the moment anyway.

"We believe PC makers in general still view the transition to ARM with a lot of uncertainty. The lack of certainty on consumer acceptance, software compatibility issues, and the readiness of the ARM processors by 2012 are all roadblocks,” the report reads.

“We see the move to quad core processors and 28nm process technology as critical steps to allow the ARM camp to improve in these areas. We believe most of the ARM processors for PCs will be done at 28nm or even 20nm in the next two years, and since TSMC has a significant lead at 28nm, we would expect TSMC to garner the majority of this business.”