14 DAY TRIAL // The netbook computer phenomenon has succeeded to draw the attention of the majority of companies in the IT industry, ranging from system builders to chip manufacturers. The increasing popularity of this form factor has enabled companies that use the ARM architecture to consider the development of portable computer systems that run on ARM processors. Such systems will initially be designed to run on a flavor of Linux, which is the only operating system that can support ARM processors. However, according to early reports, the next generation of Microsoft's operating system, Windows 7, could just enable support for ARM chips, consequently setting the stage for a renewal of today's PC market.
According to recent reports, comments made by Warren East, ARM's CEO, appear to indicate that the Redmond, Washington-based software giant may be working on adding support for ARM architecture, with the upcoming release of its next-generation Window 7 OS. East's arguments are based on a recent comment from Microsoft, which claims that Windows 7 will enable support for “a broader array of hardware than any other release of Windows at launch. While this doesn't necessarily mean that Windows 7 will add support for ARM, there's some room for speculation.
“Perhaps there will be support in future,” says East, “but that's really for Microsoft to comment on and not for us to comment on, I'm afraid.”
East's comments make some hope that an upcoming wave of ARM-based netbooks will deliver support for Windows 7, one of the Microsoft's most anticipated operating systems to date. However, considering that the first release candidate of Windows 7, which has recently been released to developers, doesn't enable the support for ARM processors, one has to wonder if all recent reports about ARM-based netbooks running on the upcoming Windows OS are real or pure speculation.