Just been following the news over the last week and it appears that the ARM surface devices have been ‘jail broken’ so that it is now possible to run win32 applications compiled for ARM on Windows RT. This raises some questions regarding Windows RT and API compatibility with win32 on x86:
1) When Office 2013 was ported to Windows RT and with there is a move away from GDI towards Direct2D/DirectWrite ( link ) which raises the question if GDI is present then how much of it actually remains in API form when compared to the x86 implementation?
2) There is the rumoured ‘Windows Blue’ whose appearance will apparently (according to said rumours) bring WinRT to desktop applications plus a few more enhancements – is that the long term view of the Surface hybrid device where Microsoft would sooner software developers target WinRT on the desktop from day one when aiming for ARM than giving Win32 access only to then spend eternity trying to then convince said developers to migrate over to WinRT.
3) ARMv8 brings 64bitness too the ARM world which opens up a question regarding the role of ARM in the future when it comes to not only tablets but hybrid devices, desktops, laptops and even servers. I’m hoping that with the relationship that Microsoft is developing with ARM that we’ll see maybe such devices appear – I’d love to see an ARM based computer in the same way we see PC’s today where you can have a computer as powerful as the one I have but use as much power as those energy efficient light bulbs.
I believe this to be inevitable given the current movement in the industry – people becoming more mobile, ARM processors becoming more powerful, which leads to more powerful ARM-compiled applications, more ARM devices = larger market share potential for apps e.g. Microsoft Office coming to iPad, and so forth.
Also, as you know, many people forget, or never knew in the first place, that ARM was originally designed as a general purpose CPU and ran Acorn desktops in the UK.
I still have not upgraded my main computer – a 2008 MacBook Pro with Core 2 Duo at 2.5 GHz – so compare with the latest ARM processors announced at CES last week, all quad-core (and wasn’t there an 8-core?) and all in the 2+ GHz range.
Now, they’re still at 32-bit but they’ll be going 64-bit and honestly I don’t need any 64-bit applications myself at this time – I just need good applications with tightly written (fast and stable) code.
It might not happen this year for everyone but I believe it will happen within a few years, and of course there are the early adopters who are already doing it (e.g. using a Surface RT or other Windows RT tablet/hybrid, or perhaps an iPad with a keyboard).
One of the benefits with ARM is the clean design, the movement to 64bit has resulted in a clean up of the 32bit architecture as well as the expanded 64bit architecture on which it is built. We’re at the point right now that the biggest obstacle isn’t the CPU itself but the slowest link – the storage, the connection between the CPU and various other parts of the hardware. In the medium term I simply see the x86 being there for the sake of legacy support but long term the movement of ARM shows a definite push into the desktop, server, workstation, laptop and tablet space where there is the ability to scale from top to bottom. The gigahertz wars have ended, the specification wars have long gone with the focus that many people have is the device being adaptable to what people want to do – that the technology can fit into their lives rather than people having to fit their lives around the technology.
What I do wish is for Microsoft to really pull finger and get WinRT for desktop applications out there along with working along side the many ARM CPU vendors to see more than just tablets and phones with ARM processors in it. Work with Adobe to get their applications working natively and optimised on ARM along with other vendors. If this is the long term I wonder what will happen to Intel – will they buy an ISA licence from ARM and bolt it onto their architecture thus ARM getting a boost with leading edge architectural design with ARM compatibility. Long term I do hope that Intel has a plan because it appears that AMD moving in the ARM direction.
Exactly – those are all great points, there is an opportunity to do things properly with 64-bit ARM, and their purchase of the MIPS technology/designs (if I recall it correctly) will no doubt help.
Spec wars are increasingly laughable, the geeks waving their dicks about while normal people are getting things done and getting back to living.
At present if you give me the apps I need on an ARM platform, then I could pretty much make do with a large-ish phone (the ‘phablet’…) and an external panel with peripherals. In a pinch, my Nexus 7 with Bluetooth keyboard makes a decent writing machine (that’s what I am using right now) so with a little more power and the apps we need (Microsoft Office, Adobe) it will be there.
Microsoft has a chance right now to do as you say, pull finger and get things moving before the desktop app vendors move to iOS and Android en masse.