Authorizing ARM architecture, Microsoft is three years late

On September 6, July 23, Microsoft signed an agreement with arm to authorize the arm V7 architecture license agreement. The share price of arm rose by 11.63%, while Microsoft fell by 0.12%. Microsoft and arm signed a V7 license agreement, microsoft has recognized that it is behind competitors in the mobile terminal operating system field. Compared with the apple-authorized ARM architecture, Microsoft has been three or more years late.

There are different types of authorization protocols in arm, of which the authorization processor architecture is basically the highest level. Global icdesign companies, including Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and Apple, are all at this level, in addition, many icdesign companies in mainland China are authorizing the A8, A9, and other processor kernels. This time, Microsoft authorizes the arm V7 architecture not so much to develop the processor, the old man thinks that it is only Microsoft's remedy for realizing that Windows CE or Windows Mobile is outdated than Apple and Google in mobile terminals and their operating systems, authorization is only to better catch up with competitors. Recently, Ballmer publicly stated that Microsoft has been behind competitors for more than a year in the tablet computer field.

Although Microsoft occupies a monopoly in the computer field, due to the difference in concept, it is difficult for Microsoft to seek the leading position in emerging fields over the years. Internet search is completely outdated for Google, even in the earliest field of embedded operating systems, it has now been surpassed by Android and Apple Ios. When Apple released the iPad tablet and iPhone 4 this year, microsoft has finally found itself out of the PC field completely outdated. As the tablet computer constantly eroded the computer market, Microsoft is facing huge challenges even in the computer field.

As mobile phones expand to tablet computers and digital homes, arm has gradually replaced x86 to become the dominant processor in the information society in the future. We are seeing this trend, apple authorized arm's V7 architecture license and developed the A4 processor for iPad a few years ago. Although the A4 processor is outsourced, I believe that as tablet computers and various mobile terminals continue to mature, Apple is not far from building a team to develop processors. Unlike Wintel, if Microsoft does not authorize the ARM processor architecture that is already monopolized by the industry, Windows will always lag behind other competitors in terms of product performance, and compare the switch time and system power consumption of iPad and other platforms, microsoft's main products, including Windows Mobile, have been completely outdated. The reason why iPad can make breakthroughs in power consumption and other fields is closely related to the optimization of its operating system relative to the ARM architecture, the Linux platform is much earlier in this field because of open-source work. Similarly, the iOS operating system based on the Linux architecture and Android optimization for the ARM architecture are also Far better than Windows, if Microsoft wants to abandon the increasingly popular mobile terminal market, it is the only way to cooperate with arm to authorize its V7 architecture.

As a software provider, although Microsoft can develop processors according to the protocol with arm, unlike Microsoft and Intel in the Wintel era, arm only provides a processor architecture or kernel provider, all customers can develop their own SOC platforms based on their own needs and are destined to diversify their SOC systems in the future. Therefore, the old hacker thinks that Microsoft is unlikely to develop its own chips, working with arm to provide better operating system platforms should be the best choice. After all, Microsoft is far behind ARM + LINUX (including Android and IOS.

It can be said that Microsoft's arm-authorized architecture is a historical necessity, but Microsoft is too outdated for companies like Apple and Google. Can Microsoft seize this last opportunity? (Author, old author)

Old hacker: Integrated CircuitCommunity-For more information about semiconductor dynamics, see laoyaoba.

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