The first Windows-10-on-ARM machines are due to ship from HP and Asus in the autumn <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/12/hp-asus-announce-first-windows-10-arm-pcs-20-hour-battery-life-gigabit-lte/>. It will include some kind of x86 emulator to run 32-bit regular-Windows apps. Of which I didn’t realize that there were still many around. Of course you can have either the ARM native performance and the long battery life, or you can have the Windows compatibility, but you are not going to get both at once. Prognosis: whenever either member of the Wintel symbiote has tried to step out on their own, the results have been uniformly disastrous. I expect this foray to be no different.
The first Windows-10-on-ARM machines are due to ship from HP and Asus...
Windows was once again going to be available on ARM systems, the first two systems were announced today: the Asus NovaGo 2-in-1 laptop, and the HP Envy x2 tablet. Both systems use the Snapdragon 835 processor
I thought I'd investigate where the "Snapdragon 835 processor" comes from. So here is my bit of research... The Snapdragon series of processors are designed and manufactured by Qualcomm<https://www.qualcomm.com/>. Qualcomm also appear to license other chip fabricators to manufacture the chips they have designed (E.g. Samsung). Qualcomm's about<https://www.qualcomm.com/company/about> page states: "we focus on a single goal - invent mobile technology breakthroughs."
From reading the wikipedia<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualcomm> page on Qualcomm...
The "inventing of mobile technology breakthroughs" seems to also require acquisition of companies and in the last 20 years Qualcomm has acquired over 40 companies. This includes the $40 billion purchase of NXP Semiconductors N.V. (formerly Philips Semiconductors) in October 2016. The Snapdragon 835 processor is a System on a Chip (SOC), in which the CPU component, according to the marketing page<https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon/processors/835> is... "A Powerful Kryo CPU. The Qualcomm® Kryo™ 280 64-bit CPU built on ARM Cortex Technology has our most power-efficient architecture to date—with independent efficiency and power clusters, each designed to optimize for a unique user experience." According to the wikipedia<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Qualcomm_Snapdragon_systems-on-chip#Snapdr> page on List of Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 systems-on-chip... The Snapdragon 835 was announced on 17 November 2016. The CPU is 4 + 4 Octa-core (2.45GHz+1.9GHz A73 custom) and the Instruction Set executed is the ARMv8-A<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARMv8-A>. The ARMv8-A architecture<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#64.2F32-bit_architecture>, announced in October 2011, adds support for a 64-bit address space and 64-bit arithmetic with its new 32-bit fixed-length instruction set. Arm Holdings<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arm_Holdings> is the company that designed the ARM architecture. In September 2016 Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoftBank_Group> Group acquired ARM Holdings for $50 billion. Broadcom Limited is another chip designer / fabricator / licensor of their designs for manufacturers. E.g. The SOC's used on Raspberry Pi's are designed by Broadcom and use ARM architecture for the CPU. Avago Technologies Ltd (a Singapore based chip maker) purchased Broadcom in May 2015 for $37 billion. The company now operates under the name, "Broadcom Limited". Broadcom Limited recently attempted to acquire Qualcomm. The Qualcomm Board of Directors unanimously rejected Broadcom's purchase offer. In response to the rejected offer, Broadcom released an official statement expressing the company "remains fully committed to pursuing the deal" If you would like more technical specification information on the Snapdragon 835, then please refer to this<https://www.qualcomm.com/documents/snapdragon-835-mobile-platform-product-brief> two page pdf. The Snapdragon 835 is currently used in these mobile phones: Razer Phone, LG V30, Google Pixel 2, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Samsung Galaxy S8, Sony Xperia XZ Premium, Motorola Moto Z Force (2nd gen). cheers, Ian.
participants (2)
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Ian Stewart -
Lawrence D'Oliveiro