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Microsoft Signs License With ARM
G143 and several other readers let us know that Microsoft has signed a licensing deal with ARM. "Microsoft signed an agreement with the UK-based ARM, giving Microsoft access to some of the chip designer's intellectual property. The two companies have worked together since 1997, but Ian Drew, ARM's EVP of marketing, said this is the first time Microsoft has become a licensee of ARM's architecture, a move which will allow Microsoft to design their own microarchitecture. Other licensees include Qualcomm, Marvell, and Infineon. Neither company would reveal the cost of the license. Speculation about Microsoft's intentions includes wondering whether the company is taking aim at the iPad, or perhaps looking to produce a next-generation Xbox without the 360's heat problems."
Embrace, extend,... thrive! I guess.
-- Cheers!
Is the soon to be announced licensing with And A Leg Technologies.
... I shouldn't ask if it'll be running Linux?
The first two things that come to mind when putting Microsoft and ARM together are Windows Phone 7 Phones and portable gaming systems, not slate tablets and full-on consoles.
I wonder what Intel's response is, especially since Microsoft is such a long-time partner. Apple went with A4, and here Microsoft is licensing ARM too. The emerging market is mobile computing, so what's the future for Intel? Surely, they can't live on x86 forever, and Atom currently isn't competitive with ARM when it comes to battery life.
The ARM core is so widely licensed that it would be hard to find a modern handheld device that does NOT contain one.
"Many semiconductor or IC design firms hold ARM licenses; Analog Devices, Atmel, Broadcom, Cirrus Logic, Energy Micro, Faraday Technology, Freescale, Fujitsu, Intel (through its settlement with Digital Equipment Corporation), IBM, Infineon Technologies, Nintendo, NXP Semiconductors, OKI, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sharp, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and VLSI are some of the many companies who have licensed the ARM in one form or another" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#ARM_licensees
IMHO, this is a non-story.
Wherever You Go, There You Are
In before the "What's that giant thing in your pocket?" "That's what she said!" engine gets warm.
I wonder what MS has in mind. You don't have to be an ARM licensee to use ARM chips in your designs. For large enough orders, there are already a number of outfits that will implement customized ARM SoCs with your choice of functional blocks, and either fab them or farm the design out to somebody else, on a variety of processes. For smaller orders, there are even more outfits who have ARM SoCs, in a variety of common configurations, in stock and ready to go. Lead times pretty much limited by Fedex for small orders, some weeks for big ones. Buying an actual license seems to indicate Serious Business of some sort.
Without any particular background in chip design, what does MS want to do that they couldn't do at off-the-shelf prices just by calling one of the existing ARM licensees and asking for a quote? For the sake of my faith in their executive team, they couldn't be doing this just because Apple is, could they?
What will it be? Massive arrays of power optimized ARMs supporting a CLR environment as the future of Windows Server technologies? Xbox720 is going to be ARM based with some sort of secret sauce?
The folks at Apple understand what people want and understand how people work. They are also unscrupulous. It is dangerous to underestimate the power of this combination. It is easy to ridicule them, but it is to our detriment if we do recognize it and confront it.
That's the smartest thing I've read today. And it'd be a hell of a negotiating tool against Intel, too. Meanwhile, the idea of Microsoft trying to do their own phone isn't all that far-fetched.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
They'll try to built a Ironman suit.
The fact that there are a large number of people who love their Apple i%DEVICE% is very telling. I meet damn few people who feel that way about MS products.
Obviously, because Apple is targeting niche market and also labels themselves to the hardware (and pay Intel etc so they can remove their logos).
In the normal PC world the cpu is from different manufacturer, the memory is, everything in the hardware is. People most likely just remembers something along the lines of their computer being a Dell-computer, because that's what the combination is sold at. Why would casual people be so interested about the single parts that make it? They just want to do their thing, that's it.
Microsoft is still lost since their tactic of "give the people something that kinda looks the same but cheaper" didn't work for the Zune.
Was it the right or the left?
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
Speculation about Microsoft's intentions includes wondering whether the company is taking aim at the iPad, or perhaps looking to produce a next-generation Xbox without the 360's heat problems.
Seriously? Microsoft has been chasing the smartphone market for a while now, but keeps having performance issues. They want a custom designed chip for their next gen smartphone.
"You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
Microsoft just wants a relation$hip with ARM so they can influence them before a huge wave of low cost, linux friendly PC's, netbooks, you name it hits the market.
----- and sink like a rock when they hit the shelves at Walmart.
Apple has re-discovered an old truth about the high-tech gadget - it sell best to folks with serious money to spend - so you might as well take them for whatever they are worth.
Your ignorance of the Microsoft Kin is forgiven, but only because it was a miserable failure.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Seriously, when is the last time MS came up with a new idea?
Some of their brutal business practices were pretty inspired.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
It's not surprising... A lot of things have been pointing to Microsoft building their own H/W in this space. HP canceling Slate and buying Palm. Dell going with Android. It makes a lot of sense for Microsoft to build their own ipod, ipad, and ARM based "netbook" like machines. If true, in the long run, I think this puts more pressure on Dell and HP.
And possibly even a PEN.
there is some company selling Atom CPU based servers and a lot of customers like them. Atom is just a Xeon with almost everything disabled due to manufacturing issues. Apple did a nice job with the A4 in terms of battery life and power consumption. MS will probably port Windows Server and other products to the architecture to keep VmWare and Linux at bay.
and with tech demos of Apache running on the iPhone any idiot will say that ARM will end up in servers soon with the big plus being you can customize it to your needs. just like Apple and Qualcomm did. with Intel you get a Xeon at $1500 each on average or a Xeon reject at $150. ARM CPU's cost a fraction of that even after R&D. and when you calculate the electricity savings it gets even better.
MS doesn't make PC's as far as I know. Maybe they have watched Apple be successful with their integrated hardware and software and want to duplicate their success.
Clone Apple. They have ARM. Microsoft must have ARM. Same old shite.
Both the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS used ARM7 and ARM9 chips. Now that Nintendo is using a different company from Japan to produce the architecture for the upcoming 3DS, perhaps Microsoft has decided to get into the handheld console race. I don't think this has anything to do with Apple or PC-related plans. This is the beginnings of X-Boy
Born to Play
Since the have licensed the arcitecture and the instruction set they are in the position of starting grouond up on ARM isntruction set compatible design and/or (heavily) modifying the exiciting core design. As the poster above pointed out they must have a need that is not serviced by the exisiting SOC comunity.
The prime candidate (IMO) is something in the Xbox3. After being burned by not controlling the CPU and GPU designs chipset parts for the Xbox1 they had tighter control on the Xbox2 (360) with thier own 3 core Power PC design.
With Sony continuing to leaverage the cell co-processors maybe MS wants something similar. It is not too far fetched that the next gen xbox could be a 3+core power pc with ARM derived co-processors (like CELL).
The advantage is that compiler support is mature and developers are very familiar with ARM architecture so getting the most out of the cores would not be the steep learning curve that cell has had.
ARM cores take up very little space compared to modern Intel/AMD x86 chip designs and typically have small levels of cache. Could easily fit a 4-6 core power PC and 20+(?) ARM cores on a modern process comparable in size to existing Xbox2 CPU die.
Disclaimer : I own some ARM shares.
They don't really need a particular project in mind, they have the cash at hand. Maybe they just want the option in their back pocket so they aren't backed into a corner.
Back when netbooks first appeared on the market, many of them ran Linux for cost and performance reasons. At the time the only shipping version of Windows was Vista which was ill-suited for machines running early Atom processors. Microsoft actually extended the life of XP so it could be used on netbooks, but protected the notebook market by adding irrelevant licensing requirements on XP sales like limits on screen sizes and maximum memory.
Then we started hearing about a brand-new generation of ARM netbooks with much longer battery lives than Atom's can offer. Linux enthusiasts exulted that since there was no shipping version of Windows that ran on ARM processors other than the hoary CE, this gave Linux another window of opportunity in the netbook market. I don't know if MS now has a Windows 7 build that runs on ARM, or whether they needed this deal to release one, but if this means we'll be seeing netbooks with Windows 7 on ARM chips, it will block Linux from advancing in this space. For evidence, it took only a few months after the extension of the end-of-life for XP to enable Windows to dominate the netbook market in the US.
The netbook market is flourishing, by the way. Recent studies suggest that netbook revenues in 2010 will run into the $10-15 billion neighborhood and growing fast.
http://www.abiresearch.com/press/1697-As+Market+Shares+Shift,+Annual+Netbook+Shipments+Will+More+than+Double+by+2013?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AbiresearchPressReleasesFeed+(ABIResearch+Press+Releases+Feed)
http://techcrunch.com/2009/12/22/netbook-shipments-2009/
1. Microsoft has opened up a few Brick and Morter Stores designed for strictly Microsoft Technologies
2. Microsoft is realeasing a new Mobile Phone OS shortly which will allow XBOX Live integration in combination with their "hopefully" intuitive UI and NetFlix video streaming.
3. Microsoft already tried to cut in to the market with the Zune. Why not some other device that they themselves built.
4. Microsoft now has an in with the ARM chipset
5. The XBOX 360 will be hitting the 5 years old mark this November
I guarantee (and by guarantee; I am fairly certain; and by fairly certain, I am completely speculating) that Microsoft is hedging their bets in order to enter the Hardware market in a more agressive fashion. And with their own brick and mortor store, they can guarantee "local" educated and informed support for their newest products.
He said a phone not a social networking portable machine handed down from the gods for all the tweens. A machine crafted by Jesus and powered from the lightening bolts of Zeus himself. Didn't you pay attention to the commercials?
That be funny if Vista wasn't a service pack for Windows ME.