At Microsoft's direction, the three primary makers of ARM chipsets have each chosen one major partner and a minor one for development.
Microsoft is making the Windows 8 operating system, the one that will support the ARM architecture, so it has to work with the ones that actually make the chips.
That said, it is definitely not cutting any corners, not according to all the leaks and rumors of the past while.
In this case,
Digitimes is, again, providing information on the latest moves, information it got from its so-called supply chain sources.
Microsoft has directed Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and NVIDIA to each choose two development partners.
Their selections will lead to Toshiba, Samsung and Lenovo actually spearheading the Windows 8 on ARM platform 'movement.'
In other words, Samsung, Toshiba and Lenovo are the three major figures.
NVIDIA, for one, selected Lenovo (the one that is about to
take away top PC player spot from HP) as prime partner and Acer as the second partner.
Secondly, Texas Instruments chose Toshiba as the first and Samsung as the second partner.
Thirdly, Qualcomm took Samsung (hence the company's status as one of likely leaders of the Windows 8 on ARM phenomenon) and Sony.
ASUS didn't figure into the prediction, possibly because its own plans could be more geared towards Windows on x86 (Intel/AMD CPUs).
People should be careful not get too overjoyed about this, since there won't actually be any tablets for sale until the middle of 2013.
Thus, Windows 8 x86 tablets are poised to emerge sooner, in the second half of next year (2012), giving them an advantage, the same way the iPad and Android-loaded slates will have established a great head start of their own by then.
After all, the ASUS Transformer Prime, powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 3, is not going to be sleeping.
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