ARM make chips for everything and everybody, odds are there’s an ARM chip in your mobile phone and at least one or two more around your house. This British success story is one of the unsung heroes of the modern technological age with the Reduced Instruction Set chip pioneered for, and first seen in the Acorn Archimedes educational computer.
Now Microsoft and ARM have signed an agreement for the Redmond giant to licence ARM architecture. In the press release they said…
ARM and Microsoft Corp. today announced that they have signed a new licensing agreement for the ARM® architecture. The agreement extends the collaborative relationship between the two companies. Since 1997 Microsoft and ARM have worked together on software and devices across the embedded, consumer and mobile spaces, enabling many companies to deliver user experiences on a broad portfolio of ARM-based products.“Microsoft is an important member of the ARM ecosystem, and has been for many years,” said Mike Muller, CTO ARM. “With this architecture license, Microsoft will be at the forefront of applying and working with ARM technology in concert with a broad range of businesses addressing multiple application areas.”
“ARM is an important partner for Microsoft and we deliver multiple operating systems on the company’s architecture, most notably Windows Embedded and Windows Phone,” said KD Hallman, general manager, Microsoft. “With closer access to the ARM technology we will be able to enhance our research and development activities for ARM-based products.”
ARM licenses processor IP under a flexible licensing model, enabling highly integrated solutions for a variety of applications ranging from mobile devices to home electronics and industrial products. ARM customers can license the ARM architecture or specific processor implementations.
But what will this mean for Microsoft going forward? Both companies have worked together before but ARM have made no secret of wanting to get Windows onto their architecture. The reason for this is that ARM chips are now beginning to power a new breed of low-cost, low-power computing devices from smartphones to tablets and netbooks. Anything ARM could do to break into Intel’s monopoly here would be great for them.
Microsoft Watcher Mary-Jo Foley has been speculating that this could mean a Windows Phone 7 tablet is on the way.
Microsoft and ARM already had agreements in place dating back to 1997 allowing Windows Embedded and the Windows Phone operating systems (built on top of Windows Embedded Compact) to run on ARM processors. The new agreement goes beyond that, but in ways the companies are not disclosing.
One of the biggest issues facing technology companies with the launch of new devices such as tablets is getting the price right. As we all have more advanced electronic devices in our homes the cost per household is being pushed up. Apple’s pricing of the iPad might not bother many people, but for most spending $500 on a device that isn’t as powerful or flexible as your PC might be a much harder sell.
The deal with ARM could allow Microsoft top start pushing at least one of their consumer operating systems onto the lower-cost ARM chips, perhaps even extending as far as Windows 8?
For now all the meat of the deal is being kept secret so we’ll have to wait and see. For many people such as myself though who are looking to buy a tablet sooner rather than later, being informed of anything exciting coming along could be a real help.
