Qualcomm to remain alone in the Windows 10 on ARM project

Mar 1, 2017 10:59 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft announced in late 2016 that the full Windows 10 would be able to run on ARM chips thanks to a new emulation system, explaining that Qualcomm would be one of the companies involved in the project, with its chipsets specifically developed to take advantage of this idea.

But as far as MediaTek is concerned, this is just a risky project that the company doesn’t want to invest in for the time being, especially because Windows on ARM is already a failed experiment since 2012.

MediaTek is currently one of the biggest ARM chip manufacturers, so when asked whether they plan to put ARM-based chips into Windows 10 PCs, the answer was a big no.

“We've been down this path before, and we'll see,” Finbarr Moynihan, general manager of sales at MediaTek, was quoted as saying.

On the other hand, MediaTek will continue building ARM chips for Chromebooks and other devices, but as far as Windows is concerned, the company will stay away from this platform. The firm says that putting ARM in a Windows 10 PC is just like using an Intel chip in a smartphone, describing it as a limited opportunity that is not worth investing in at the moment.

The Windows RT flop

MediaTek pointed to Windows RT as the failed experiment showing that Windows 10 on ARM is a risky project, though Microsoft is doing things differently right now.

Windows RT was launched in 2012 on the Surface RT as a tablet-oriented operating system that could only run apps from the Windows Store, with no support for Win32 software. With Windows 10 on ARM, however, Microsoft is introducing a new emulation system that does support Win32 programs, thus removing this limitation and fixing the biggest annoyance that eventually killed off Windows RT.

Qualcomm would thus remain the only big company building ARM chips for Windows 10, and the firm’s Snapdragon 835 is already prepared to take advantage of this emulation.

The first PCs running on Snapdragon 835 should see daylight later this year, as Qualcomm and Microsoft are working as we speak to get this project ready for the public launch.