Windows 8 ARM will be available at retail at the same time as Windows 8 x86. Or at least Microsoft hopes to make this the case. No doubt about it, Microsoft understands that low-power and mostly mobile devices are critical to their future, and don’t want to waste any time making inroads into this section of the market. There’s no guarantees here, but even if the date for WOA slips, it shouldn’t be by more than a couple of months.

Windows 8 ARM will retain a standard Windows desktop interface and programs. Despite a focus on the new Metro interface, Microsoft has assured its current users that the Windows desktop and core experience apps like Internet Explorer, File Explorer and the like will remain a central part of Windows. Of course, they’re going to need a lot of tweaking, including a lot more of the Ribbon interface (love it or hate it) and possibly the complete removal of the Start button. The next version of Microsoft Office, which they’re calling Office 15, will work on WOA.

You can’t run x86 or x64 software on Windows 8 ARM, but Metro apps will run on both. It’s a fairly obvious point, but bears repeating: with a shift to a completely different architecture, developers will have to work within the boundries of the ARM system-on-a-chip. Current programs just won’t work on ARM machines. However, applications built to Micrrosoft’s Metro standards (and published to the Windows Store) will work on both x86 and ARM-based hardware, and can access standard stored resources. And speaking of Metro…

New Windows 8 ARM software can only be downloaded from the Windows Store. Yup, Microsoft’s going full integrated in WOA, not unlike their similar moves with Windows Phone 7. In keeping with the integrated platform vibe, you won’t be able to just download an EXE file and install it – paid or free, every new app, Metro interface or not, will have to come through the Windows Store. By the way, expect this to be cracked and circumvented roughly twenty minutes after the first WOA machine is sold. Even new driver downloads will come through the Windows Store. x86/x64 Windows will still operate the way it does now.

Windows 8 ARM will be labelled clearly and separately from Windows 8 x86/x64. Remember the fiasco that was the “Vista Ready” program? Now imagine that with two separate code bases and a a dozen or so form factors. Microsoft doesn’t want to repeat that, so they plan on making the differences between W8 and WOA completely transparent. Of course, it doesn’t help that they’re both called “Windows 8″, and around the same time Windows Phone 8 may be coming out. So yeah, expect massive confusion from the Best Buy crowd, and lots of cries for help from your relatives.

You can’t buy Windows 8 ARM. Not as a consumer, anyway: the ARM division of Microsoft and Windows is going to focus on completely integrated devices, not unlike regular smartphones and tablets today. WOA will be sold as a consumer electronics device, not a traditional PC. If you want a WOA machine, you’ll have to buy one from a hardware partner. That said, keeping modders from doing their thing is nigh impossible, and various hacks from published versions of WOA and developer builds should make for some interesting projects. It should be possible, if not entirely practical, to run WOA on some current Android tablets. We can’t wait to see what comes out of the modder crowd.

Most of your peripherals will work with Windows 8 ARM. WOA includes basic plug-and-play functionality for most of the basic add-ons out there, so adding a mouse and keyboard, external hard dives, card readers, et cetera should work just fine.  As usual more esoteric hardware, like the shortcut buttons on your keyboard, will need specific drivers. These may be downloaded from the Windows Store if the accessory manufacturer supplies them. More complicated hardware add-ons, like TV tuners or graphics tablets, will probably need entirely new drivers. There’s no word on external displays, but most ARM licensees have at least some support for HDMI-out already on the market, so it’s probably coming along for the ride.

Windows 8 ARM will support DirectX 10 gaming. And hardware acceleration in the browser and general UI too, but what you want to know about is gaming. There have been some impressive gains in ARM-based graphics cards lately, and getting DirectX support in WOA is a major accomplishment. This doesn’t mean that your current Windows games will work with WOA (because of the architecture – see above) but the tools are there. Developers should be able to get some very impressive graphical oomph out of Windows 8 ARM hardware, and maybe soon after launch ARM downloads from indie and then major publishers will start appearing in the Windows Store.

Windows 8 ARM beta is coming soon, and you can’t have it. At the same time as the next milestone release for Windows 8 x86/x64, Microsoft will be starting a closed beta program for Windows 8 on ARM. A limited number of developers will be given access to WOA hardware and software. There’s no word of a public beta for Windows 8 ARM at all. For some good news, the Windows 8 x86/x64 Consumer Preview will be available in late February. The closed ARM beta will start at this time.

There you have it – just about everything we know about Windows 8 ARM from a consumer standpoint. Developers, you really should go and read the full post at MSDN – just make sure you don’t have anything else planned for this evening. If Microsoft is true to their word, manufacturers should have WOA devices hitting shelves in late 2012, with internals from Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and Nvidia. This is all very far out, as Microsoft keeps reminding us – nothing’s set in stone yet.

This shouldn’t be taken as an iron-clad confirmation: the blog post talks about power-saving measures for “both desktop and Metro-style apps”, specifically on system on a chip architectures like ARM. That implies, but doesn’t guarantee, that traditional desktop programs will still be allowed on ARM-powered Windows 8 machines, presumably using the old Windows 7 and earlier interface. Microsoft still isn’t answering questions on the subject.

Even if a desktop mode is included on the ARM version of Windows 8, applications will need to be tweaked and in some cases completely rewritten to run on the architecture. The situation would be somewhat similar to when Apple switched from PowerPC processors to Intel: initially, some apps would work on x86 machines and some on ARM machines, with a little technical wizardry needed to make a program universal. This is in addition to the distinction between normal desktop apps and Metro apps.

It still seems possible that Microsoft will want to focus on low-power (and in most cases low-function) programs for ARM-powered machines. In recent builds of the x86 version of Windows 8, even the good old Start button seems to have been given the boot. Developers can’t even work with the ARM build at the moment, though it’s expected to arrive sometime this month. ARM Windows devices aren’t expected to reach retail shelves until well after the debut of Windows 8 itself.

[via ZDnet]

Schaap managed to get OS X Snow Leopard “booting into a multi-user prompt” on the Marvell chipset, though there were lingering hardware issues that persisted. In the process, he needed to build a filesystem and kernelcache from the ground up, as well as work around old code in the existing ARMv5 branch of XNU.

A proper release, he suggested, would first require significant reworking of elements of code, along with new drivers to “fully utilize the potential” of Apple’s hardware. Apps themselves would also need to be re-written – or ported from ARM-based platforms – as well.

Nonetheless, it adds to ongoing suspicions that Apple is at least considering using ARM-based chips – such as the company’s own A5 and upcoming A6, as currently used in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S – in notebooks as well as tablets and phones. At least one prototype MacBook Air running on an Apple A5 chipset has been reported, performing ”better than expected”, though it was not specified whether it was running iOS or OS X.

[via Apple Insider]

Nonetheless, East believes Android manufacturers do still stand a chance of making a mark on the tablet segment, it’s just that they need a little more time to build momentum. “When Android phones were introduced, there was a lot of hype” he points out, “and then, actually, they didn’t take off in the sort of way that reflected that hype. Then a few years later – two years later – half a million units a day, 700,000 units a day. I think we should give Android tablets a little bit more time.”

In the meantime, Microsoft will need to capitalize on its brand awareness headstart if it wants Windows 8 on ARM to be a success. ”It’s up to Microsoft [and we'll see] how well they’re going to exploit that advantage” East cautions, “but I think that’s a fundamental difference.”

ARM announced $217m in revenue for Q4 2011, over a fifth higher than the same period a year ago, while profit rose 45-percent. 1.2bn ARM chips were shipped in cellphones and mobile computers, the company claims.

“In October of last year. [Windows 8 on ARM] scared the industry because it was unstable. But what we are seeing now is quite stable … We haven’t heard this directly from Microsoft, but we’ve heard this from the hardware partners that [Microsoft] is working with. We’ve been promised something in the February time frame” Unnamed developer

Microsoft has not apparently confirmed release schedules to its partners, at least not as far as these sources know, but feedback on the ARM build is positive. One described it as “impressive and stable” in contrast to earlier demonstrations, though Microsoft’s reluctance to allow too much pre-release play is supposedly because of a shortage of apps.

“I’m not aware of any third-party legacy applications running on Windows 8 on ARM,” a source admitted. “Of course, some of the Metro apps that Microsoft has demoed will be available on Windows on ARM. These are mostly HTML5 apps.”

Microsoft has already detailed the Windows Store for Windows 8, its approach to pushing software to users of its upcoming platform, though it’s not alone in wanting to get developers a foot in the door with users of the new OS. BlueStacks has already previewed a version of its Android App Player for Windows 8, which will allow unmodified software written for Android phones and tablets to run on Windows 8 machines.

As for hardware, Windows 8 on ARM is supposedly running stably on “at least two” ARM platforms, presumably Texas Instruments and Qualcomm since both were demonstrated at CES 2012 earlier this month.

The five buttons each tablet will need include power, volume up, volume down, rotation lock, and Windows key. The Windows key will have to be 10.5mm in diameter, but the manufacturer will be allowed to choose what shape it takes on. Another bit each tablet will need is an NFC “touch mark,” this being either a sticker or an embossed marking near to place where the tablet’s NFC chip, if it has one – this so that people can be sure they’re tapping the right bit to future NFC-capable sensors, of course.

Such gems as the following are also included:
1) Any bezel that surrounds the display area must not interfere with the user’s ability to interact with the edges of the display area.
2) Digitizer’s jitter is a maximum of 1 millimeter over 10 millimeters of travel.
3) Computer display devices can accurately render colors after being calibrated, to within certain colorimetric error tolerances.

Then there are things you’re going to love, like the classic CTRL+ALT+DEL changed to Power+Windows button. Other minimum requirements include:

Storage: capacity must have at least 10GB of free space after installation of the operating system
The system firmware must use UEFI, and have secure boot locked down for ARM tablets
Network: WLAN and BlueTooth 4.0 + LE (low energy)
Mobile broadband: If fitted, an assisted GPS radio is also required
NFC: A visual marking of its location on the outer body is required
Graphics: Direct 3D 10 device with WDDM 1.2 driver
Display: Must be at least 1366×768 pixels at a depth of 32bits
Touch Support: It must pass all tests offering at least five touch points
Camera: Must all be capable of at least 720p
Ambient light sensor: 1-30k LUX capable with dynamic range of 5-60K
Sensors: Magnetometer, accelerometer and gyroscope
Connectivity: At least one USB 2.0 controller and exposed USB 2.0 port on frame
Speakers

Then for those of you that love to furrow your brow, the fact that there’s a mandatory Secure Boot feature for ARM-based Windows 8 devices should give your face a workout. This prevents hackers from loading, for example, Android onto the hardware. Intel-based tablet will not be required to have the same lock.

You can grab PDF files of the full set of requirements straight from Microsoft if you want to be official about it, this link leading you also to requirements for Windows 8 System and Windows 8 Filter Driver Requirements.

According to a document titled Windows Hardware Certification Requirements, which Microsoft released last month, the company confirms that it is up to manufacturers as to whether Secure Boot is locked down or not. For x86-powered PCs, notebooks and tablets, OEMs are free to decide which way to leave the settings; however there is no choice for ARM-powered models:

“MANDATORY: Enable/Disable Secure Boot. On non-ARM systems, it is required to implement the ability to disable Secure Boot via firmware setup. A physically present user must be allowed to disable Secure Boot via firmware setup without possession of Pkpriv. Programmatic disabling of Secure Boot either during Boot Services or after exiting EFI Boot Services MUST NOT be possible. Disabling Secure MUST NOT be possible on ARM systems” Microsoft

“We are introducing capabilities that provide a no-compromise approach to security to customers that seek this out” Microsoft Ecosystem team member Tony Mangefeste wrote back in September, when Secure Boot issues were first identified, ”while at the same time full and complete control over the PC continues to be available.” The decision appears to be one that would prevent ARM hardware from being repurposed from running Windows 8 and instead coaxed into loading Linux-based platforms, such as Android, or, as The Verge suggests, dual-booting between them.

As for x86 machines, concerns have apparently been voiced from notebook vendors that Intel-based Windows 8 devices will have entry-level pricing considerably higher than ARM-based counterparts – either running Windows 8 or another OS – as neither Microsoft nor Intel are willing to subsidize software or hardware. Microsoft has refused to discount Windows 8, DigiTimes reports, and Intel won’t countenance Clover Trail-W price cuts for tablets, it’s said, as they each fear a knock-on effect on the gross margin of general PCs.

“[Intel] have taken some designs that were never meant for mobile phones and they’ve literally wrenched those designs and put them into a power-performance space which is roughly good enough for mobile phones” Warren East, CEO, ARM

To East, it’s ARM’s ability to coax high-definition multimedia and game-crunching power out of minimal battery charge that will keep it ahead of its considerably larger rival. “People want to do more things with their phones, but battery size remains constant” he suggests.

Intel’s smartphone chip plans have been a long time coming, and with more than one aborted attempt along the way. While the company has made its fortune from increasingly high-power desktop and laptop processors, the same strategies have not fared so well in mobile applications. There, the delicate balance between sucking through a smartphone-scale battery in a matter of hours and delivering the sort of performance users demand requires a far more frugal chip that, until now, Intel has been able to make.

The company believes it has the answer in Medfield, however, with a new dual-hyperthreading system – among other things – that help restore some of that power/thirst equilibrium. Lenovo has already shown off one design, the Racer-A, aka the K800, using the Z2460 and supposedly lasting all day, according to the manufacturer.

Lenovo Racer-A demo:

The system works like current Google TV boxes from Logitech and Sony: it incorporates content from a cable or satellite box like the one on display, then controls, records and manages it. The system also aggregates web content via apps, like YouTube, Netflix, Revision 3 and the like. The prototype hardware was shown running the latest version of Google TV with Android 3.2 Honeycomb, so it has access to apps on the Android Market.

The box on display is just a mock-up design for Marvell’s partners, but already it’s considerably smaller and lighter than conventional units. Output includes HDMI and standard RCA. One of Marvell’s unique additions to the platform is integrated upscaling, for the elements of Google TV that don’t look so great on a 1080P television, like icons from downloaded apps. Marvell wasn’t ready to announce its specific partners or their intentions at the show.

Together, TI says, it’s enough for “fast and fluid multitasking in Windows 8 while maintaining ultra-low power consumption”, something particularly important when you want to take on Android and iOS based tablets that can last all day on a charge.

The OMAP4470 also includes M-Shield mobile security, a separate hardware-managed encryption system. That can be relied on to create a trusted execution environment (TEE) without taking up cycles in the primary OMAP4470 cores.

It’s not just tablets TI has in its sights, however. The company is also pushing its ARM-based OMAP4470 as an alternative to AMD and Intel x86 processors in notebooks and desktops. We’ll know more when we can check out the Windows 8 demo board first-hand.

“The Google and Marvell teams have been working closely together to bring our combined software and chipset technologies to market to grow the Google TV ecosystem of manufacturers and devices. Marvell-powered Google TV solutions will enable powerful products to be brought to market at attractive prices” Mario Queiroz, VP, Product Management Google TV

Perhaps best of all for a living room device, the ARMADA 1500 HD-based boxes will be fanless, using passive cooling systems rather than noisy spinning fans. That should answer one of the complaints about the original Logitech Revue, which was based on an Intel x86 chipset and required active cooling; not something you’d notice in the middle of a loud action film, but a distraction when you’re trying to concentrate on something quieter.

Altogether, it’s enough for the sort of YouTube, Netflix, Pandora, Skype and Picasa accessing smart TV functionality Google TV has been promising all along, with a combination of IPTV internet playback and search overlaid onto traditional cable and other broadcast content. Google recently unveiled Google TV v2.0, this time based on Android Honeycomb, with a pared down UI and access to the Android Market for TV-compatible apps.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt said last year that he expects Google TV to be on the majority of new TVs by the summer of 2012, an ambitious promise that requires low-cost chipsets and broad manufacturer adoption in order to achieve. With Intel’s platform falling short on both those counts – prompting the company to step back from TV chipsets altogether - it turns to ARM to do the same for smart TV as it has done in the smartphone and tablet world. We’re expecting to see plenty more on Google TV on ARM at CES 2012 next week!

Announced midway through 2011, the Raspberry Pi project aims to put low-cost, open-source “very small computers” in the price range of children and schools, encouraging kids to learn Debian, Fedora, ArchLinux and other platforms. Ports on the basic $25 model include USB, HDMI, RCA video and an SD card slot – as well as 10/100 ethernet on this $35 Model B version up on eBay – and the whole thing is capable of running off a few AA batteries.

All proceeds from these initial ten developer boards will go back into the company, a registered charity, which perhaps explains some of the ambitious bids. The rest of us might be better off waiting until regular sales kick off shortly.

[via Al Sutton]

However, legacy apps for the traditional Windows desktop won’t be supported: instead, the store will offer Metro-style software. Legacy software will show up as a landing page within the store, linked to developers’ sites, while brick & mortar sales of boxed apps – as well as third-party download sites – will still be supported.

The Windows 8 Store was confirmed in the pipeline several months ago, indeed the icon – though not the functionality – was present on the Windows 8 tablet we previewed back in September. Microsoft has refused to comment on its exact setup until this week, though.

Third-party Metro apps will become particularly important as Microsoft pushes the tablet potential of the new OS. The first such slates are expected to show up in the second half of 2012, with Samsung and ASUS both tipped to be readying models. The initial batch will run on x86 processors from Intel and AMD, though the Windows 8 on ARM project will see Samsung, Lenovo, Sony, Acer and other manufacturers reportedly weigh in with versions running on NVIDIA, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm chipsets in mid-2013.

What’s still unclear at this stage is whether ARM Windows 8 models will be able to run legacy apps at all. Rumors that they would not began last week, amid suggestions that only Metro apps would be supported, though Microsoft is yet to confirm either way.

Qualcomm is believed to have picked Samsung and Sony, with the Korean company’s strengths in component manufacturing – including displays, memory and other elements – singling it out for attention, along with the fact that it already has a solid presence in the tablet market. Texas Instruments selected Toshiba as well as also opting for Samsung.

Finally, NVIDIA is said to have gone for Lenovo and Acer, with Lenovo selected as major partner for its heft in the Chinese market. Conspicuous by its absence is ASUS, despite the fact that the company is already believed to be working on Windows 8 tablets – albeit likely using x86 processors, not ARM-based chipsets – for release in the second half of 2012.

Exactly how soon we can expect to see ARM-based products from any of these companies remains to be seen, however. According to previous leaks, Windows 8 on ARM tablets aren’t likely to go on sale until mid-2013, a delay analysts are already suggesting will leave Microsoft significantly disadvantaged up against the iPad and Android-based slates.

Until now, Microsoft has said that Windows 8 ARM tablet owners would have a choice when it came to software. The new OS brings the Metro UI to PCs from Windows Phone, with a more finger-friendly, Live Tile based interface for touch use and general multitasking, and the regular desktop underneath if needed. Now, it seems, Microsoft may limit ARM Windows 8 tablets only to that Metro UI, and apps that support it.

While limiting app choice may initially seem like a poor idea on Microsoft’s part, the strategy hasn’t been a hinderance to Apple. The iPad runs iOS rather than OS X, after all, and has encouraged a flourishing third-party developer scene of its own; our experience with Windows 8′s Metro interface, albeit on an x86 tablet not an ARM-based one, suggests that the new UI is a huge step forward for touchscreen usability, something previous iterations of Windows-based tablets have always struggled with.

Windows 8 Metro UI hands-on:

Forcing only tablet-centric apps onto ARM slates – which, with their focus on battery longevity, browsing and multimedia consumption are likely to be the main models to appeal to consumers potentially also considering an iPad – is likely to result in a more controlled, consistent user experience. Of course, Microsoft’s big challenge remains timing; although the Windows 8 x86 public beta is now expected early in the new year, ARM-based hardware isn’t tipped to arrive until mid-2013. That delay could be enough for Microsoft to miss its chance at the consumer tablet market altogether researchers have warned.

It’s unclear at this stage whether the limitation also exists for notebooks/netbooks running Windows 8 on ARM chipsets.

When consumers predominantly look at a tick-list of specs, generally with the mindset that “more = better”, how do you get past the immediate assumption that four cores in one phone or tablet are automatically better than two cores in another phone or tablet? It’s a question we’ve asked chipset manufacturers like Texas Instruments – another firm that has shifted to A15 rather than increase the number of A9s in its chips – before, and they generally dodge it, arguing that’s something the brands using the chips in devices are are skilled at.

Samsung, though, makes both the chips and much of the hardware that those chips end up in: it can’t avoid the marketing challenge. The company’s press release this morning did make a vague effort to put the spec improvements into context, hitting on the 2560 x 1600 resolution and stereoscopic 3D support though not with any great gusto. That’s perhaps to be expected from the semiconductor department, but unfortunately most product manufacturers aren’t doing much better either. This reluctance, laziness or inability to tell would-be users why they should care is increasingly going to bite those pushing tablets and smartphones.

The chipset world is split in how it sees next-gen mobile processors taking shape. NVIDIA has thrown itself into the more-core approach, doubling up but keeping the same A9 architecture as it shifts from Tegra 2 to Tegra 3. Texas Instruments has taken the opposite approach, sticking with a pair of cores but shifting to ARM Cortex A15 architecture for a complimentary boost in power. Qualcomm, meanwhile, is hovering in-between: it designs its own chips, licensing the core tech from ARM but tweaking as it sees fit. The custom Krait cores in the Snapdragon S4 series, therefore, will have roughly the performance of an A15 but use significantly less power than either it or indeed an A9, or so Qualcomm tells us.

A good rule of thumb is to look at what Apple is doing, though of course the Cupertino crowd has followed a vastly different strategy with its phones and tablets. An oft-highlighted difference is the fact that Apple hardly ever talks about raw specifications, focusing instead on the experience. The iPad 2 has a dual-core chip, Apple points out, but that’s so that “multitasking is smooth, apps load quickly, and anything you touch responds instantly”; similarly, the graphic chip is faster not just because that looks better on the spec sheet, but so that games and menus are “even more fluid and realistic.”

However, Apple in effect has its tablet and smartphone markets to itself: nobody else makes an iOS-based “iPad” or “iPhone”, whereas Samsung, ASUS, Acer, Motorola and the rest all make Android tablets and phones. In their rush to compete, they’ve all set the benchmark for “success” at being faster/more powerful/more-packed-with-cores. Android Tablet A is 0.23% faster than Android Tablet B, so it is A Better Device.

General consumers don’t understand why that might be the case, however, so they’re forced to translate the specs as best they can. Until now, the tablet market outside of the iPad has predominantly revolved around NVIDIA’s Tegra 2, but that’s increasingly going to diverge as the next-gen chipsets arrive. Context is something that will play a huge role as each manufacturer justifies their choice of processor.

Their challenge is arguably the consumers’ gain: instead of being picked on price, or which has the skinniest chassis (but probably the same specs inside as everything else), or a color option that matches your suit, brands will be forced to explain why buyers should care rather than simply throw a long list of specifications at them. It could even result in a net benefit for manufacturers, too, a refinement in positioning opening up new niches for iPad rivals and allowing them greater space to flourish.

Samsung, Qualcomm, NVIDIA and Texas Instruments have convinced us that there’ll be no shortage of power in the next-gen phones and tablets. Now the industry needs to raise its game in how it dresses that power with something even more important to end-users: context. Without that, every mobile device not wearing an Apple logo is likely to struggle to find its feet in an increasingly impatient marketplace.

It’s also capable of driving higher-resolution screens, the sort of pixel-dense panels we can expect to see on next-generation tablets. In fact, up to WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution is supported, impressive stuff considering most Android tablets currently run at a mere 1280 x 800. Samsung’s chip could double up that resolution for clearer text, crisper graphics and – with the improved 3D grunt – faster gaming.

There’s also native support for stereoscopic 3D. In comparison to 1.5GHz dual-core Cortex A9 chips, the new Exynos 5250 is roughly twice as fast: capable of simultaneously processing at 14,000 DMIPS versus the last-gen’s 7,500 DMIPS. For the technically minded, Samsung says the 32nm 5250 takes advantage of low-power HKMG (high-k metal gate, High-K Metal Gate) manufacturing processes.

Everyone else can simply sit back and look forward to faster phones and tablets next year. Samsung says it will begin production of the Exynos 5250 in Q2 2012, with samples available to manufacturers now.

In fact, so the notebook players reckon, it won’t be until 2015 until Windows on ARM hardware presents a significant, market-share grabbing challenge to Intel and AMD based hardware. Software support and notebook vendor reluctance are cited as the two main problems: apps written for Windows 8 on regular x86 processors will need to be reworked to run on ARM chipsets.

Nonetheless, producers of ARM chipsets – like NVIDIA and Qualcomm – are believed to be “aggressively cooperating” with firms like Lenovo and ASUS on potential implementations, with both notebooks and tablets on the agenda. The benefit of the ARM chips will be power frugality without sacrificing multimedia power, allowing Windows 8 slates to take on the iPad and Android tablets with lengthy runtimes.

However, Intel isn’t expected to concede the processor market quietly, and will be pushing out Ivy Bridge in early 2012 and then Haswell in 2013. Both platforms are expected to dramatically cut power consumption, making them ideal for ultramobility implementations like tablets and ultrabooks.

The mouse has a light-up Fnatic team logo and contains the ability to be the most customized mouse on the market. For example the logo and the rest of the lighting on the device has three zones of 16.8 million color illumination options. Light it up in green if you’re using it with a computer with an NVIDIA processor, for example. Inside you’ll also find a 32 bit ARM processor for calculations on the mouse itself, you needing no software drivers to do so, no computer needed! Of course you’ll need a computer to do anything with the mouse, but have a peek at this: sensitivity settings that can be changed in increments of one from 1 to 5,700 CPI and an “overclocked” Double CPI that’ll let you bump it all the way up to a massive 11,400 DCPI. This mouse will cost you a cool $99.99 / €99.99 MSRP.

For the products above and below, find out more about how to purchase at SteelSeries.

The headset contains 50 mm dynamic driver units for fabulously detailed and rich sound, fabulous “mood setting music” as they say, and critical 3D positionable sounds and alerts. The padding around your ears is made to block out all ambient noise and the SNDBlock hybrid ear cushions as they’re called are made of both cloth and leather. WHat we’ve got here is sound isolation from the inner leather layer and comfort for your head with the outer cloth layer. You can dismantle the whole set into four pieces for compact transportation and ease in cleaning if that’s something you do with your headsets, and the whole set will cost you right around $139.99 / €114.99 MSRP.

HTC could be envisaging something akin to the Shift, the company’s UMPC from back in 2008 which could boot into both a customized version of Windows Mobile 6 and Windows Vista, allowing for smartphone-style and laptop-style use depending on your task demands. Rather than Microsoft’s platforms, however, the new device could switch between Android and Chrome OS, the former intended for internet browsing and content  consumption, while the latter would allow for content creation using Google’s cloud-based apps.

Alternatively, the “advantages” mentioned could refer to running Chrome OS on an ARM chipset, as Android phones use, rather than a more power-hungry Intel processor. The platform already has ARM support, but so far the only commercial hardware released has used Intel’s Atom CPUs. With ARM at its core, a Chrome OS device could likely run for longer on a single charge and still deliver high definition video and other multimedia benefits.

Acer and Samsung both cut the starting price for their Chromebooks earlier this week, in the hope that it would spur on consumer interest; even so, cumulative sales are expected to only reach 30,000 at most by the end of the year. Google also tweaked Chrome OS itself slightly, to make discovering browser-based apps more straightforward to discover. Back when we reviewed the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook we found it to be solid hardware but unable to compete with similarly priced notebooks when it came to flexibility of use.

This project is known as the EU Mont-Blanc Project and will otherwise take part in developing a portfolio of exascale applications that work well on the technology now being developed with NVIDIA. Sound familiar? The leader of this Mont-Blanc project mister Alex Remirez, notes that while current systems need to give the “lion’s share” of energy to the CPUs, 40 percent or more, that is, “the Mont-Blanc architecture will rely on energy-efficient compute accelerators and ARM processors used in embedded and mobile devices to achieve a four- to 10-times increase in energy-efficiency by 2014.” Exciting!

NVIDIA expanded upon what it’d do to work with developers by noting that they’d be releasing a new hardware and software development kit for its ARM-based initiatives around the globe. This kit will of course contain a brand new quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 ARM CPU complete with a “discrete” NVIDIA GPU, all of this available inside the first half of 2012. This kit’s hardware is being developed by SECO and will be supported by the NVIDIA CUDA parallel programming toolkit. Get in on the action!

The new GPU is a Midgard Architecture-based GPU that is for high performance devices. ARM claims that the new GPU has ten times the graphics performance of the Mali-400 GPU that is in a bunch of tech products today. The GPU also has four times the GPU computer performance of the Mali-T604. ARM says that compute performance makes the GPU appropriate for computational photographic, image processing, and augmented reality.

ARM says that its leading partners are planning to support the new GPU including Fujitsu Semi, LG Electronics, Samsung, and others. The GPU will also find its way into car infotainment systems and other devices. The GPU is designed to work with ARM Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 processors. The new GPU can be scaled up to eight cores.

The first Redstone units will be available, albeit in limited volumes, to HP’s business customers next year. HP will also be pushing for a set of Project Moonshot open standards, working with AMD, ARM, Calxeda, Canonical and Red Hat, the target will be so-called “hyperscale” computing environments which balance power and performance with reduced scale and complexity.

Redstone is a major coup for ARM, which bit off two sizable targets in the shape of Intel and AMD when it attempted to challenge the status quo in the enterprise server industry. Until recently, server manufacturers opted for a few high-power chips paired with gobfuls of RAM, a setup that can handle high load but is comparatively wasteful when load reduces.

Chip alternatives like ARM Calxeda take a different approach, using many low-power processors that can scale up to handle larger tasks but use far less power when load is low. HP will also use Intel’s Atom processors in later iterations of Redstone.

The ARMv8 will allow chips built on this architecture to handle more data and memory, resulting in overall faster performance. It will also now be able to support platforms like Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s Mac OS, which are both 64-bit. Additionally, Microsoft has already announced that it is developing Windows 8 versions that will be compatible with the new ARM 64-bit chip architecture.

However, it may be awhile before ARM partners start incorporating the new chip architecture. Specifications have already been made available to manufacturers with details of full-scale ARMv8 processors due in 2012. Actual enterprise products and systems using the chips most likely won’t ship until 2014.

[via ComputerWorld]

We learned about the new A7 chip earlier this week and how it’ll provide not only similar performance to the chips currently sitting inside devices such as the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy Nexus, but at a much lower cost in both cash to produce and power to run. ARM notes that inside the next two years, high-end smartphones will be bumping up to A15 architecture, this allowing much higher performance, but wont exactly work out so well for current battery technology.

It’s physics though, people, physics, where batteries inside the science we understand today are simply not able to hold a bigger charge without endangering the user – explosions and meltdowns and all that. So the change must come, as ARM notes, in the processor. ARM claims that combining an A7 with an A15 using big.LITTLE processing, much more advanced apps than we’re using today will be able to be working without depleting the life of our modern day batteries any more than we are now.

Warren East, ARM’s chief executive spoke this week with Telegraph.CO.UK about the situation, saying several bits:

“The sub-$100 price-point is when we can start talking about connecting the next billion people. … We have had to do this at the right time to ensure people could make money. We could have done it five years ago but nobody would have paid us. The demand is there now as applications become more demanding. In the time it has taken chip performance to improve 10 times, battery life has improved two times. The main requirement today is more miles per gallon.” – East

With this proposed big.LITTLE system, there will be up to four A15 and A7 cores, this architecture already licensed to 14 chip makers at the time of this post. We’ll be seeing this system in play sooner than later, to be sure!

The Cortex A7 may appear to be a stepped up Cortex A8, which is a rather old design, but the A7 is much improved in several areas. On its own, the A7 could power sub-$100 entry level smartphones for 2013-2014 with the same processing performance as today’s $500 high-end smartphones.

And as a companion core, it can be used in next-gen high-end smartphones with quad-core and A15-based SoCs. Next-gen SoCs like NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 Kal-El quadcore processor currently use A9 companion cores. Replacing with A7 companion cores could in theory reduce power consumption by as much as 70%.

[via AnandTech]

Both ARM and TSMC have completed the implementation from RTL to tape out on the new processor in six months. The process was able to be completed so quickly thanks to the TSMC Open Innovation Platform 20nm design ecosystem, claims TSMC. The Cortex-A15 has low power consumption and high performance with an advanced feature set.

The Cortex-A15 processor will be used in all sorts of products including smartphones, tablets, mobile computing, digital home products, and other devices. The test chip was implemented with a commercially available 20nm tool chain and TSMC is hailing the collaboration resulting in the new chip as a confirmation that its Open Innovation Platform promoting innovation for the semiconductor design community works.

Similarly, Apple might be competing with OS X and iOS, but Ballmer draws a distinction between the iTunes ecosystem that serves iPods, iPads, iPhones and Macs with digital media, and the hardware itself. Apple of course already offers an iTunes version for Windows, though it’s unclear whether the company will also develop a Metro version that fits into Microsoft’s new touch-centric interface in Windows 8.

“Amazon is an example. They may have a device competitor, but they have certainly behaved like their fundamental business is the service. They’ve done a lot to try to have good support of other folks’ device. We welcome them. We’d welcome Metro-style apps from Amazon. We’d welcome Metro- style applications from Apple in the iTunes case. I don’t know what we’d see there but we’d certainly welcome those. And, because of compatibility, there’s certainly a path forward for everybody” Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft

That could prove to be a sticking point for Windows 8 hardware running on ARM chipsets, since Microsoft has also confirmed that x86 Windows 7/8 software won’t be compatible with its version of the OS for ARM processors like Tegra 3. Considering the majority of ARM-based devices running Windows 8 are expected to be tablets, Apple could well decide that they step too closely to its own iPad range, and opt out of releasing a specific ARM build.

In doing so, Sinofsky arguably used a little verbal slight of hand to work around a previous – apparently misconstrued – statement. Earlier in the week, the exec said that legacy apps from Windows 7 machines would work on Windows 8, something which many assumed meant both x86 and ARM devices. In fact, Sinofsky pointed out, so far there haven’t been any ARM Windows 7 machines, and we were incorrect to assume he was talking about ARM support.

He also argues that Microsoft has “been very clear since the first CES demos and forward that the ARM product won’t run any x86 applications.” Nonetheless, back in May the company described Intel’s suggestion of that as “factually inaccurate” and “misleading” though wouldn’t say exactly how that was the case.

According to Sinofsky, Microsoft’s concern is that x86 apps aren’t designed with power frugality in mind, something ARM tablets and notebooks are likely to at least partially prioritize. Security is also a concern: “if we do let them run, we just brought the perceived negatives of some of the ecosystem” he explains, “so, people say, great, now it’s easy to port viruses and malware and we’ll port those.”

Avoiding viruses is certainly one way of stopping common criticisms of Windows tablets; that is, that they require more maintenance than iPad or Android Honeycomb rivals. In Sinofsky’s strategy, x86-based Windows 8 models would be a very different proposition for consumers than ARM-based variants, with Metro being the “opportunity” glue for developers in-between.

QUESTION: Thank you. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit — you mentioned yesterday that legacy applications will be able to run on Windows 8 regardless of the chipsets that people are choosing. I was just wondering if you could talk to us a little bit about how that will happen. Does there have to be some emulator or app virtualization? But if you can kind of walk us through what you’re doing there.

STEVEN SINOFSKY: Sure. I don’t think I said quite that. I think I said that if it runs on a Windows 7 PC, it’ll run on Windows 8. So, all the Windows 7 PCs are X86 or 64-bit.

We’ve been very clear since the very first CES demos and forward that the ARM product won’t run any X86 applications. We’ve done a bunch of work to enable that — enable a great experience there, particularly around devices and device drivers. We built a great deal of what we call class drivers, with the ability to run all sorts of printers and peripherals out of the box with the ARM version.

What we talked about yesterday was — what we announced yesterday for the first time was that when you write a Metro style application, all the tools are there to enable you in any of the languages that we support to automatically support ARM or X86. I think that’s the key part of everything that we’ll run.

It is very interesting. I kind of want to encourage folks to think a little bit about it because, obviously, there are technical reasons and technical capabilities that could allow several approaches.

You know, if you start from the premise that Windows on ARM is a good thing and that the role of an operating system is to abstract out hardware for software developers, which is essentially the definition of an operating system, and then let the unique value of that hardware shine through. And that’s something that Windows does fairly uniquely. It’s constantly working to let innovations in hardware shine through in the operating system so that they all can show their uniqueness.

The challenge is very interesting. If we allow the world of X86 application support like that, or based on what we call desktop apps in our start yesterday, then there are real challenges in some of the value proposition for system on a chip, you know, will battery life be as good, for example? Well, those applications aren’t written to be really great in the face of limited battery constraints, which is a value proposition of the Metro style apps.

So, we have to be careful that we don’t remove the value proposition for those applications. On the other hand, people would say, oh, but you have to let them run because then there’s that whole ecosystem. And then if we do let them run, we just brought the perceived negatives of some of the ecosystem. So, people say, great, now it’s easy to port viruses and malware and we’ll port those.

So, we’ve taken the approach that we’re going to build a bunch of rich capabilities in the operating system that allow devices and peripherals and a broad range of form factors all to run and working with multiple ARM partners on the ARM side, and then Intel and AMD on the system on a chip side, but then focus on the Metro style applications as the opportunity.

And so if you’re a developer across the street, you look at it, your opportunity just grew because it’s an Intel-based world and the AMD-based world plus the ARM-based world for Metro style apps, so it’s the whole run rate of all of those.

[via InfoWorld and via The Register]

Ballmer notes that they still have a long way to go with Windows 8, but that much of the core operating system is already in place. Much of the work remaining involves incorporating other services with Windows 8 and to ensure compatibility with ARM-based systems. However, he emphasizes that “It’s not going to be Intel or ARM. It’s going to be Intel and ARM.”

And with all the new opportunities to develop other types of devices and cloud services, Ballmer says that their approach is to remain focused on Windows, but “broadly re-imagining Windows.” Other major topics he hit on included being able to incorporate Windows Phone, Windows Live, and other cloud services such as Bing and Office 365.

He also encouraged developers to support Windows despite the other tablet and smartphone operating systems available, insisting that there is no other platform in the world that will ship 350 million units this year. This seems to hint at rumored support for Windows Phone apps in the Windows 8 platform.

The company demoed Windows 8 during yesterday’s keynote and gave away a Samsung Windows 8 tablet to each of the 5,000 attendees. Make sure to check out our hands-on with the tablet.

[via AllThingsD]

All eyes are on ARM-based processors at the moment, with Apple’s wildly successful iOS platform and Google’s fast-growing Android both taking advantage of chips using technology such as in Qualcomm’s own Snapdragon range. Beyond that, though, Microsoft has promised Windows 8 on ARM for a new generation of long-running, power-sipping slates.

A big part of Qualcomm’s focus will be emerging markets, Jacobs says. There are currently 5.7bn mobile connections made worldwide, and four out of every five are from emerging market regions. Still, there’s plenty of room for high-powered chips that target flagships from companies like HTC and Sony Ericsson.

“People expect no compromise, they expect that desktop experience in the palm of their hand” Jacobs concludes, describing the web as “a megatrend.” “There are devices out there today which bring you the web, but they don’t bring you the full web” the CEO suggested, perhaps a slight snub to Apple’s Flash-free iOS experience. Whether Qualcomm has the tech to deliver a viable alternative, we’ll have to wait and see.

According to a source familiar with the situation, Intel plans to show Windows 8 running on tablets and notebooks with new Atom processors. The rumored Windows 8 Samsung tablet will also be running on Intel chips. Intel will be focused on its next-gen Medfield chips and providing more details on its ultrabooks during the Intel Developer Forum, but may also introduce netbooks running on Atom chips.

Windows 8 supports both the Intel x86 platform as well as the ARM architecture, allowing Intel rivals to expand into the PC business. NVIDIA and Texas Instruments are both expected to also show off some Windows 8 hardware at Build. Hopefully, we’ll get to see Windows 8 running on NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 or quad-core “Kal-El” processor, which are confirmed to be compatible and are due out later this year.

[via PC World]

ARMdevices reports that a product strategy manager for Acer said at IFA that Acer would not be offering ARM processors inside notebooks in the short term. The unnamed source claims that ARM processors won’t show up inside Acer gear until Windows 8 launches. Presumably that means the ARM machines won’t come until next year whenever Windows 8 lands.

There were rumors circulating before that the ARM chips would land in Acer notebooks anytime now. As rumors go this one is certainly in unconfirmed territory. The product manger reportedly offering these tips is said to be in charge of the Ultrabook only. If this person is all Ultrabook, there is a big chance that he/she wouldn’t know what was going on with other teams. Time will tell if the rumor is true.

Welch did not say when, exactly, Apple had made the threat, but back in May Intel did outline its low-power Core processor intentions as part of the new ultrabook segment. Chips likely to find their way into ultrabooks demand just 15W, less than half the 35-40W of previous examples. The end result is longer runtime on on smaller batteries, something Intel is hoping PC manufacturers will take advantage of with a new breed of MacBook Air-rivaling ultraportables.

“To date if you wanted that sleek design you had to buy a Mac,” Welch pointed out. “There are people who want a PC in that form factor.” The exec admits that the ultrabook concept is inspired significantly by the success of the Air, though not whether the “wake-up call” was solely around power consumption or the realization that it should look outside of Apple for markets for high-end ultraportables.

Intel has previously admitted that Apple has a strong hand in shaping its roadmap, with senior VP Tom Kilroy saying that the Cupertino company’s demands “push us hard.” The comments came on the heels of rumors that Apple might look to ARM-based chips for future notebooks, building on the success of the Apple A4 and A5 found in the iPhone and iPad. Earlier this month, analysts predicted that Apple would launch an ARM MacBook Air by 2013, while its iOS and OS X software would eventually merge.

“We haven’t announced any plans to go in that handheld space. We’ve got plenty of opportunities… in server, notebook and now tablets, that’s our immediate focus. But if the right circumstances come up and we can see a way to impact the market, we’ll obviously continue to look … We’re excited about what the tablet market can do for AMD” Rick Bergman, senior vice president and general manager, Product Group, AMD

Just as Intel has positioned its Atom processors, AMD’s strategy is to deliver the “full PC experience” of graphics, app compatibility and performance and hope that it is what buyers – and OEMs – are looking for from their slates. Models actually using the Z-series processors are still in short supply, however. The MSI Windpad 110w went up for pre-order recently, but is yet to begin shipping, and Acer is reportedly looking at using the chips for Windows 7 based tablets though has no public release dates.

Getting x86 processors to the level where they can compete with ARM chips in the frugality/performance balance is still a work-in-progress, and early feedback of Atom chips has been less than glowing (as well as muddied by poor response to Windows 7 on tablet hardware). Intel has promised Android Honeycomb support but early feedback indicates the company still has work to do.

“We believe Apple is looking to merge iOS (iPhones/iPads) with OS X (Macs) into a single platform for apps and cloud services starting in 2012-13″ Peter Misek

The idea of an ARM processor inside a MacBook notebook, rather than an x86 Intel chip, is one we’ve heard talk of before. Reports earlier this year also suggested Apple was eyeing mid-2013 to begin the transition, using new 64-bit cores. Subsequently leaks from Apple’s engineering labs tipped ARM-based MacBook Air ultraportables undergoing testing, albeit using the A5 dual-core processor found in the current iPad 2 rather than the A6 chip.

“Users want to be able to pick up any iPhone, iPad, or Mac (or turn on their iTV) and have content move seamlessly between them and be optimized for the user and the device currently being used. We believe this will be difficult to implement if iOS and OS X are kept separate” Peter Misek

Misek predicts that Apple will launch the iPad 3 and the Apple A6 SoC in Q1 2012, along with a new iPhone in the summer of that year. The MacBook Pro line, and Apple’s desktop computers, will initially stick with x86 chips so as to maximize 64-bit app compatibility, though the analyst suggests they too will cross over to ARM by 2016.

“We believe Apple is ready to start sampling the A6 quad-core app processor and will be the first such multi-device platform capable of PC-like strength” Peter Misek

The A6 itself is tipped to be a so-called 3D processor, with a layered construction that allows for components on each layer to intercommunicate at high speed. Sampling is believed to have already begun, with TSMC Apple’s partner of choice as the company distances itself from Samsung. Software-wise, OS X Lion is already reminiscent in many ways of iOS, including its scrolling system – which inverts the standard scroll-direction in previous iterations of the desktop platform – and support for the Mac App Store.

It should be Q1 2013 when things get really interesting, with the quadcore Krait chips arrival. The MSM8974 will run at between 2.0GHz and 2.5GHz, with 2MB of L2 cache, 800MHz DDR3 dual-channel memory support and Adreno 320 graphics. It’ll also pack LTE Cat-4, HSPA+ and various other connectivity support, and be capable of 1080p 60fps HD video together with processing images from up to 30-megapixel sensors.

Those chips should be propping up the flagships in tablets, smartphones and even ultraportable notebooks to rival Intel’s Ultrabook drive. SlashGear spoke to Raj Talluri, VP of product management for Qualcomm’s chipset division, about what makes the company’s chips special, particularly given that NVIDIA expects to have its quadcore Kal-El platform on the market sometime this quarter. The Qualcomm advantage, Talluri says, is that the company designs its own cores rather than, as with NVIDIA, TI and others, using off-the-shelf ARM designs.

“[Firms like NVIDIA and TI] don’t have the ability to make their own [cores], they haven’t mastered that yet” Talluri pointed out, suggesting that NVIDIA’s quadruple Cortex-A9 chip will sacrifice battery life in its pursuit of performance, while arguing that Texas Instruments was limited to just a pair of Cortex-A15 cores in its OMAP5 because any more of the toasty chips “would burn through the package.”

Instead, the VP claimed, Krait offers significantly more DMIPS per MHz (i.e. performance) than an A9 core, and is roughly on a par with an A15 core. However, when it comes to DMIPS per milliwatt (i.e. power frugality), Krait uses significantly less than either an A9 or A15 core. Rivals, he suggested, are merely targeting “multicore” rather than “the right core”; Qualcomm has already insisted that its existing dualcore is faster than Kal-El.

Update: Qualcomm has requested that we remove the roadmap information.

[via Netbook News]

ARM has noted that in order to allow for the next generation of gaming and user interfaces on mobile devices that it needs more than just a GPU and must take advantage of the CPU and GPU for the power needed. ARM also notes that it can’t meet this goal by simply using more hardware. ARM believes that other techniques are needed to provide the experience users and developers want on mobile devices. The other techniques are required to provide the needed performance and still get the battery life needed.

These other techniques will include shrinking the process node, aggressive power management, and multiple GPUs. The use of multiple GPUs will allow the performance when needed and the ability to sip power when not. Notebooks already use that tech with things like NVIDIA Optimus. ARM is also talking up its Mali T604. This chip will be the first to enable GPGPU capability and will support OpenCL. This chip is being sampled now with products set to appear in 2012.

[via The Inquirer]

Unfortunately, the sources don’t say whether it’s Kal-El or the older, dual-core Tegra 2 chip that ASUS is looking to use. Apparently, ASUS and the other companies are blaming the poor sales success of smartbooks like the Toshiba AC100 on the underpowered ARM processors of the time. With dual-core chips already making a dent in the market, and quad-core nearing, a second attempt seems more realistic.

No details on Acer, Toshiba and Samsung’s ARM notebook plans at this stage, though we’re guessing they’ll be similar to the Samsung: ultraportables intended to take on Intel’s Ultrabook segment, relying on the ARM chips’ frugal power consumption and media/gaming-friendly 1080p HD graphics crunching. Apple has also been tipped to be considering an ARM-based MacBook, with an Apple A5 powered MacBook Air prototype reportedly spotted last month.

[Thanks lau!]

However, Microsoft would also be pushing hardware partners to use Windows 8 on tablets of their own, though it’s unclear how licensees might respond to a home-grown rival. According to the leaks, the Microsoft Windows 8 slate will arrive sometime by the end of 2012; it’s not confirmed that it will use ARM chipsets, but given TI’s supposed involvement that seems the most likely course.

TI announced its new OMAP4470 chip, a 1.8GHz dual-core, last week, with availability expected in the first half of next year. The company confirmed to SlashGear that it had been designed with Windows 8 on ARM specifically in mind, balancing power and battery longevity in a way that TI reckons Intel and ARM-based rivals can’t beat.

Of course, there’s also TI’s OMAP 5 due in the second half of 2012, which would be even more powerful and mark a shift to the ARM Cortex-A15 architecture. Microsoft declined to comment on the rumors, and we’re a little skeptical about the whole idea; still, if Google can lend its brand to the “Nexus” range of devices and show Android OEMs how it envisages the platform evolving, perhaps that’s not such a bad idea for Microsoft too. The company released its first proper preview of Windows 8 for tablets last week.