Windows starts Cross-platform planning

Just as a few days ago, as it was expected for 2010 (next-generation Windows may support X86 platforms), Microsoft's official window 8 announced yesterday that it first supported the first platform ARM architecture outside X86. This is a milestone event for both Windows and the Qualcomm of the arm system.

This is a winning decision that fully meets the interests of both parties. Microsoft introduced the concept of a Tablet PC a decade ago, but hardware software and habits, a premature and stunted concept, soon vanished from sight-perhaps too early. After years of silence, with the ipad on the rise, tablet computers have sprung up to occupy the market, while Microsoft, which once had a crush on tablets, has been unable to really take on the flat-forward train. Windows 7 has a lot of support for multi-touch and pen, but is limited by X86 hardware costs and high power consumption, giving its tablet computers a bit of a bit of highbrow and less attention. (There is a win7 on the Beijing east of the Patriot Tablet computer, a purchase of user evaluation, recruited a bunch of people cynical "ya, you have money, more than 6,000 to steal food? ", Khan).

In the traditional X86 architecture, shipments to the mobile and flat-panel RISC processors have continued to grow at a high speed--smartphones, mid and tablet are the biggest drivers. Ios,android, et cetera quickly occupied most of these increments. This is a raging scene, let Microsoft saliva unceasingly, made WP, but still have time, moreover so big flat market, have not cut cake.

In this case, Microsoft comes up with the killer, which is the Windows platform, a gold weapon with billions of apps-it requires low power and long endurance of the mobile processor, and it knows that all mobile processor manufacturers will welcome it.

Indeed, for mobile processor manufacturers, of course the more shipments, the better, in the general processor domain by Intel and AMD after the encroachment, many manufacturers have to survive in the gap, now have a flat and mobile this high-speed growth opportunities, natural hope the faster the better, and this growth rate is actually dependent on the development of intelligent Systems, iOS is a closed system, Apple's "boutique route" speed should be fixed, the rapid expansion of Android is a good opportunity, but not enough, if Windows can be added, it would be cool, in the windows of hundreds of billions of applications support (iOS about 300,000, ANDROID20, and Windows than the gap is too large, ARM architecture can be omnipotent, even can preempt the desktop market.

From a short view, Windows Cross-platform support temporarily has little impact on Intel and AMD because hundreds of billions of applications are not directly migrated and need to be recompiled on a new platform, which requires a process, but this is an exponential increase; Mobile processor performance still lags far behind low-end desktop systems, That many desktop jobs are unable to complete the migration; the low power processing of Intel and AMD offsets part of the transfer pressure; the next-generation Windows Touch experience is still a long way off.

But in the long run, this is a pretty grim test: software migration has always been a process of interest, as long as the user enough, the process will be exponential speed; The mobile processor is getting more and more high, and once the computing power of everyday life is reached after the performance is upgraded and the GPU is fused, Often this demand does not rise in a straight line, for example, we do not need to buy the most expensive computer to complete the daily calculation, then the migration speed will be faster. The low power consumption of mobile processors, combined with Windows ' universal platform, is the most desirable form of flat-panel collaboration-as long as the next-generation Windows user experience reaches a certain level.

Source: Reader contribution.