The chip maker is confident in the platform's capabilities

Nov 30, 2011 17:35 GMT  ·  By

When released, Windows 8 might prove just the thing that Microsoft needed to enter more market areas, and partner companies tend to believe so.

Featuring a touch user interface and other enhancements that make it fit for the mobile space, Windows 8 is seen as a valid option for those who are looking for a change in today’s OS landscape.

Windows 8 is a great OS and one of the best things that happened to Intel, the company’s CEO Paul Otellini said recently to ZDNet.

“We are very excited about Windows 8. I think it’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to our Company,” he said.

“And it’s a very good operating system, not just for PCs, but we think also will allow tablets to really get a legitimacy into mainstream computing, particularly in enterprises that they don’t have today.”

Apparently, Intel is not worried about the support for ARM architecture that Microsoft is working on and which is supposed to translate into the platform being loaded on highly mobile devices.

According to Otellini, Intel is better positioned when it comes to Windows devices, since it already has a great experience with the platform, and it can also take advantage of the long series of drivers and applications that are already available for x86 systems.

The emergence of Windows on ARM systems will pose a series of challenges, starting with the fact that there won’t be support for legacy applications, which indeed places Intel in a better position.

“And they have a new experience, which they call Metro, that’s the interface up there. But for Intel-based machines, there is also one button that basically takes you back to your classic Windows experience and that’s a software button essentially,” he says.

“So you’re just running one manifestation of the operating system with two different GUIs, if you will, it’s not running on virtual machines, it’s one manifestation.

“So this gives us, x86, in particular, I think a unique advantage as Windows 8 comes to market, because we can take advantage of all the legacy that was ever written, and of the fact that all the drivers for the mice and for printers and every other USB device in the world.”

This also means that, when it comes to mobile devices that will pack Intel chips, enterprises will benefit from not having to change the applications they were already using within the company, and from the security options that were already there for them, a great advantage over other systems.

Recent reports suggest that AMD would plan on moving to the mobile space as well, leaving behind years of competing against Intel, which will offer the latter increased maneuver space in the x86 area, dominated by Windows.