14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will enrich the collection of Windows offerings with the advent of the next major iteration of the Windows client slated for 2012. Multiple new Windows 8 flavors are currently cooking in Redmond and will be released, expanding on the traditional versions of the operating system. The new Windows 8 spin-offs are intimately connected with the software giant’s work to introduce support for the ARM architecture, a move which Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer and Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division confirmed officially at CES 2011 in January.
In fact, Windows vNext’s support for System on a Chip (SoC) architectures, including ARM-based systems, remains one of the extremely few details that the company shared with the public. (via Nick Eaton - ChannelRegister)
Microsoft will offer no less than four Windows 8 SoCs for ARM (support for SoCs from four manufacturers), revealed Renée J. James Senior Intel Vice President General Manager, Software and Services Group, at the CPU giant’s Investor Meeting 2011 in Santa Clara, California this week.
Each of the four new flavors of Windows will be tailored to a specific ARM environment, James stressed.
And it appears that the new Windows 8 versions will be isolated islands in the Windows ocean of compatibility and legacy app support. With each version developed as a unique stack, compatibility will be limited only to new applications and Cloud services developed especially for them.
Windows 8 SoCs for ARM will not welcome apps and services build for different versions of the operating system. Furthermore, James notes that incompatibilities will exist even in terms of their own architectures.
This means that new Windows 8 SoCs for ARM will not be forward- or backward-compatible, even for the architectures from the same vendor, but belonging to different generations as they evolve.
James underlined that even with Windows 8 playing nice with SoC architectures, Intel will continue to hold the upper hand. The advantages touted are compatibility and legacy with Intel processors, neither of which are at the core of ARM offerings.
Instead, emerging ARM-based form factors will usher in new experiences for users which will obviously be focused around mobile scenarios involving devices such as Tablet PCs / slates.