Showing posts with label arm cloud. Show all posts
Perhaps this will succeed where Windows RT failed.
Microsoft dipped its toe in the ARM waters with Windows RT but it ultimately proved a failure, primarily because of the lack of applications. That doesn't mean the company is going to give up on the dominant mobile market processor, however.
At the WinHEC show in China last week, Microsoft announced it has finally created a native version of Windows 10 running on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors with full x86 compatibility. This isn't Windows RT, it's full Windows 10, but you’ll be able to run Win32 apps and Windows Universal Apps.
The initial version of ARM Windows 10 only supports 32-bit apps, but that's not a big deal since most mobile devices have 4GB of memory or less anyway. And it should be noted this is Windows 10 on Snapdragon, not Windows 10 on ARM. Sure, Qualcomm's processors are fairly ubiquitous but they aren't everywhere. You won't be running Windows 10 on an iPad any time soon.
This enables Microsoft to get down into the lower-cost mobile market. The Surface tablets and notebooks are nice but they aren't cheap. That's partly due to being essentially x86 PCs. An ARM-based tablet has an overall lower cost of materials and lower price, so it gets Windows into places Microsoft currently isn't playing with the Surface line.
"For the first time ever, our customers will be able to experience the Windows they know with all the apps, peripherals, and enterprise capabilities they require, on a truly mobile, power efficient, always-connected cellular PC," said Windows chief Terry Myerson in a blog post announcing the breakthrough, along with other WinHEC news.
"With Windows 10 on cellular PCs, we will help everyone make the most of the air around them. We look forward to seeing these new devices with integrated cellular connectivity and the great experiences people love like touch, pen and Windows Hello, in market as early as next year," he added.
PCWorld (a sister publication of Computerworld) reports that the emulation will be built around a new, unreleased chip the Snapdragon 835 that's in production now and is due to ship in the first half of 2017, according to Qualcomm. The first Windows-on-ARM devices are expected by the second half of next year.
This will be a major challenge for Qualcomm. Emulation is always tricky business. Remember Transmeta? The difference here is Intel has basically given up on the mobile market. It bailed out of the tablet and smartphone business last year, basically handing it to ARM. So at least they don't have to deal with Intel on the hardware side.
But Qualcomm still faces a considerable challenge of ARM-to-x86 emulation. We don't know anything on the performance specs of the 835, only that it's a 10nm part.
Apps on the x86 architecture have mostly been limited to desktop processors - until now. At the 2016 WinHEC Conference in China, Microsoft announced that ARM processors will soon be able to run the full desktop experience of Windows.
During the Windows 8 time frame, as The Verge recounted, Microsoft implemented Windows on ARM under Windows RT, which proved to be unpopular since RT was only capable of running apps from the Windows store - that meant no x86 apps.
This has been rectified with the software giant's partnership with Qualcomm. Through emulation that is built into Windows 10, ARM processors will be able to run x86 win32 programs.
Executive Vice President Terry Myerson noted on Windows Blog: "For the first time ever, our customers will be able to experience the Windows they know with all the apps, peripherals, and enterprise capabilities they require, on a truly mobile, power efficient, always-connected cellular PC."
With a Snapdragon chipset, Microsoft demoed Windows 10 on ARM running the desktop Office suite, Adobe Photoshop, and Halo Spartan Assault. This showed how easily desktop apps might be handled on laptops and tablets by hardware partners, and even phones with Continuum, all the while taking advantage of the light footprint that mobile processors provide.
Lumia 950 XL release with Continuum, a feature of Windows 10 Mobile that let's phone act like computers when connected to a display. While Microsoft did not discuss Continuum in relation to this x86 emulation, this ARM implementation of Windows 10 could make Continuum that much more potent.
As it stands, Continuum for Windows 10 Mobile can only be taken advantage of using apps specifically design under the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) architecture, but Windows 10 on ARM can bring desktop apps to phones.
Windows 10's support for ARM processors is set to release next year. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!
Parties to work together to accelerate virtualized BBUs based on General-Purpose Processors
SAN JOSE, CA December 8th, 2016 - Today, Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for Enterprise, Telco, MSP and cloud data centers, announced an agreement with China Unicom to accelerate the design and development of Virtualized BBU and provide a path for 5G adoption. The collaboration will focus on commercializing vBBU systems using general purpose hardware based on Cavium’s ThunderX® workload optimized data server processors which are built on ARM architecture. In addition, Cavium has joined the China Unicom CORD Industry Alliance and will drive adoption of open source architecture and technologies in China together with China Unicom.
China Unicom and Cavium will work together on new innovative fronthaul solutions, system architecture and vBBU performance and deployment. This collaboration allows Cavium to align with China Unicom’s commercial networks technology development and innovation, research feasibility of Next Generation Virtualized Wireless Access Network, perform lab and field testing, evaluate results, drive deployment of developed technologies into commercial network, carry out lab and field performance test and assessment, accelerate pilot and application of new technical innovations in real-world networks.
“We are very pleased to collaborate with China Unicom in this critical area. As network capacity continues to be stretched and the user demands continue to grow the industry is faced with significant challenges which cannot be solved by traditional means,” said Raj Singh General Manager of the Wireless Broadband Group at Cavium. “The use of advanced general purpose hardware such as Cavium’s ThunderX workload optimized data severs allows us to provide a highly scalable virtualized solution for these requirements.”
“Virtualized network based on general purpose hardware and open source technologies represents the overall direction for future network changes. China Unicom partners with Cavium, a leader in virtualized BBU technology field, to drive R&D of virtualization products based on general purpose processors, thus laying a solid foundation for building new generation of network infrastructure,” said Dr. Tang Xiongyan, CTO of Network Technology Research Institute, China Unicom.
About Cavium
Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), offers a broad portfolio of integrated, software compatible processors ranging in performance from 1Gbps to 100Gbps that enable secure, intelligent functionality in Enterprise, Data Center, Broadband/Consumer, Mobile and Service Provider Equipment, highly programmable switches which scale to 3.2Tbps and Ethernet and Fibre Channel adapters up to 100Gbps. Cavium processors are supported by ecosystem partners that provide operating systems, tools and application support, hardware reference designs and other products. Cavium is headquartered in San Jose, CA with design centers in California, Massachusetts, India, China and Taiwan. For more information, please visit: http://www.cavium.com.
Media Contact
Angel Atondo
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Telephone: +1 408-943-7417
Email: angel.atondo@cavium.com
