Windows 10 Pro natively works on Snapdragon 835 ARM processor

Perhaps sometime in the future, Windows will again be the most popular operating system in the world. This will happen if Microsoft succeeds in realizing its plans and distributing Windows 10 on mobile devices - smartphones, tablets and other gadgets that work primarily on ARM processors. The Microsoft operating system has a trump card - a huge number of third-party programs written under Windows. But they are all written under the x86 architecture and do not run on smartphones. Microsoft intends to correct this flaw.

In December 2016, Qualcomm announced a partnership with Microsoft and announced a new 64-bit Snapdragon 835 processor (ARMv8), on which Windows 10 could work. It was assumed that these Qualcomm processors could be installed in laptops instead of traditional Intel and AMD chips. The start of sales of the new SoC was promised in the second half of 2017.
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Probably, in addition to laptops, such chips are suitable for installation in smartphones and tablets. These will be gadgets with a full-fledged Windows 10 system. And they will be able to run any applications for x86, from Photoshop to old games.

Until now, sales have not yet begun, but at the Microsoft Build 2017 conference, Microsoft developers recorded a presentation (video) , which showed the capabilities of a computer with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. The presentation authors are Hari Pulapaka, Lead Program Manager, Window Core Kernel Platform ) and development director Arun Kishan.

As Liliputing ironically remarks , the new Windows 10 for ARM provides an even more native experience on the desktop than Windows 10 S, because Windows 10 for ARM allows you to run 32-bit applications from outside the Windows Store.

The video showed how x86 applications run and run on a Snapdragon 835 ARM processor. For the demonstration, we used a prototype tablet (engineering device) provided by Qualcomm.

The device has Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview operating system (Evaluation copy Build 16183.rs_onecore_base_cobalt.170423-2207) and a full set of MS Office 2016 office applications. Judging by the shortcut on the desktop and in the Start menu, the game of League of Legends, Keeper Password Manager, Tunelin Radio, 7zip.



In the properties of the system it is explicitly written that the 64-bit operating system the operating system runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon SDM835 processor at a clock frequency of 1.9 GHz, with 4 GB of RAM



Task manager shows running processes. In appearance, Windows 10 on ARM is no different from operating the OS on a normal computer.



On the performance tab, you can make sure that all eight cores of the ARM processor are involved.



Edge browser starts up in about a second, works fast, scrolling does not slow down.

Microsoft employees said that compatibility is supported at the hardware level. As a proof, they connected a webcam via USB to the engineering device - and it immediately started working without installing drivers manually, etc. Applications are also installed in the usual way - insert a flash drive with the distribution kit or launch the installer downloaded from torrents or the official website of the program - and install the program. The demonstration carried out such an operation: went to the site 7zip, downloaded the installer and installed the archiver.

Existing x86 win32 applications are installed and run on ARM completely transparently - without the need for additional actions by the user or application developer. The x86 instructions are translated into ARM64 instructions transparently during program execution, and are also cached on disk for faster use in the future. The kernel, drivers, and all applications work completely natively (ARM code).

Thus, application developers do not have to recompile their programs under the new platform. As shown in the presentation, the ARM binary in the system is precompiled automatically. Unless the developer needs to put one tick in UWP.



Perhaps, in the future, more ARM processors will appear on the market, on which Windows 10 will be able to work, and then really laptops with ARM will go to the people. Although they are unlikely to be able to run the latest video games and perform complex video rendering tasks.

A month ago, representatives of Qualcomm said that ARM-laptops with Windows 10 will not appear on the market until the IV quarter. 2017