Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft's x86 on ARM64 Emulation: A Windows 10 Redstone 3 Fall 2017 Feature (zdnet.com)
Mary Jo Foley, reporting for ZDNet:Since January 2016 (and maybe before), there's been talk that Microsoft was working on bringing x86 emulation to ARM processors. Sources of mine are now saying that this capability is coming to Windows 10, though not until "Redstone 3" in the Fall of 2017. Here's why this matters: Microsoft officials continue to claim that Continuum -- the capability that will allow Windows 10 Mobile devices to connect to external displays and keyboards -- is going to be a key for the company, its partners and its customers. There's been one very big limitation to Continuum so far, however: It only allows users to run Universal Windows Platform (UWP), and not full-fledged x86 apps. What if an ARM64-based device could run x86 apps via emulation, the same way that the WOW (Windows on Windows) emulator allowed 32-bit apps to run on 64-bit Windows? That would make Windows 10 Mobile, which as of now, continues to support ARM only, and Continuum a lot more interesting, especially to business users who need certain Win32/line-of-business apps.
Rather than just provide x86 emulation on ARM, we can use x86 emulation on ARM to run Oracle's x86 Java implementation. We can run the jRuby interpreter in that. And we can use jRuby to run this ATARI 2600 emulator.
I bet a lot of you folks can suggest a more absurd one than that.
Bruce Perens.
emulation of x86 for apps not sufficient, that doesn't make drivers work.
... that you had enough memory in your phone.
it worked, but it was primarily a DEC effort, not an MS one. DEC did the heavy lifting in cooperation with MS in an effort to get mainstream adoption of Alpha processors.
Is there some reason to not go this route? It seems a lot more obvious to me; no emulation needed. Continuum on Windows 10 Mobile on x86 solves most of these problems. I think Microsoft's last best chance for Windows Mobile to be anything other than a footnote is to support corporate desktops, and x86 phones that are also a corporate workers desktop seems like something they can manage in short order. At that point, good old-fashioned Microsoft inertia takes over and plenty of people start using their work platform as their personal device as well.
I don't see it conquering the world, but it's probably a profitable niche at least.
I recently made the move to Android myself.
Funny thing is, since that time, I have been more interested in looking to see what other people are using and I have seen more Windows Mobile devices in people's hands than I would have thought. My rough estimate is 1-2% of the people I have seen on public transportation have Windows Mobile devices.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
I remember using it to play Starcraft on a Alpha 21164 using a Win2k beta. First run would be slow, then subsequent runs would get faster and faster...