The ARM architecture has been reborn as a potential PC processor and even if the number of ARM PCs are rarely few more are coming. NVIDIA impressed many with its ARM-based Tegra platform and Qualcomm and more have launched their own ARM processors for netbooks/smartbooks. The main problem is the x86 incompatibility and all regular versions of Windows, which did look to change, but sadly we were mistaking.
Microsoft has made a statement denying and killing all rumors of ARM support with Windows 7. In an interview during Computex it killed off any possible support for other processor architectures with Windows 7, which is of course a slap in the face of the ARM developers and a reason for Intel to celebrate.
“For people who want a PC, albeit a different chipset, we don’t think those will work very well,”
Windows 7 RC
It’s still far from over for the ARM architecture as it has several other operating systems to fall back upon, like Linux, BSD, Android and Windows Mobile. Microsoft believes that few PC and Windows users will want to switch to these “limited” platforms, considering software support.
How this will affect the breakthrough of the ARM architecture on the PC market is up for speculation, but for us consumers it will mean one less alternative.
