Microsoft Said to be Designing its own Arm SoC to Compete with Apple Silicon

[TheLostSwede]

According to Tom's Hardware, Microsoft is busy hiring engineers to help the company design its own Arm based SoC for Windows 12. Based on job listings, Microsoft is adding people to its "Silicon team," which is currently involved in designing products for Microsoft's Azure, Xbox Surface and HoloLens products. That said, the specific job listings mentioned by Tom's Hardware mentions "optimizing Windows 12 for Silicon-ARM architecture" suggesting we're looking at a custom Arm SoC, with others mentioning "internally developed silicon components" and "building complex, state-of-the-art SOCs using leading silicon technology nodes and will collaborate closely with internal customers and partners."

That said, Microsoft is currently working with Qualcomm and the Microsoft SQ3 found in the Surface Pro 9 is the latest result of that partnership. This brings the question if Microsoft has decided to make its own chip to compete with the Apple M-series of silicon, or if Microsoft is simply looking at working closer with Qualcomm by hiring inhouse talent that can help tweak the Qualcomm silicon to better suit its needs. With Windows 12 scheduled for a 2024 release, it looks like we'll have to wait a while longer to find out what Microsoft is cooking up, but regardless of what it is, it looks like Windows on Arm isn't going anywhere.



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[Nostras]

Apple primarily had a HW issue, Microsoft primarily has a SW issue. Designing their own Arm SoC is neat (and copycatting Apple but I'll ignore that) but this won't do shit about the problems they have with SW.
That said, there is also a chicken and an egg problem here, but for as long as Microsoft is asking for crazy premiums for their products with Arm SoC's I don't understand how they're trying to solve this problem.

I just don't really get why Microsoft is so insistent on doing this. Their ecosystem is entrenched in x64-x86.

 

[ZoneDymo]

ermm how exactly does that compete with apple?

 

[Fatalfury]

not sure how it will got for Microsoft especially they couldnt handle the hardware side of things like Nokia/Windows phone situation.

i am not sure if they can compete with Mediatek , let alone Apple..

 

[TheLostSwede]

ermm how exactly does that compete with apple?

Arm vs Arm based SoC? It might not be a direct competitor, but for people that aren't fixed on only buying Apple hardware, it might be a competitor, depending on how it performs once it launches.

 

[bonehead123]

Apple primarily had a HW issue, Microsoft primarily has a SW issue. Designing their own Arm SoC is neat (and copycatting Apple but I'll ignore that) but this won't do shit about the problems they have with SW.
That said, there is also a chicken and an egg problem here, but for as long as Microsoft is asking for crazy premiums for their products with Arm SoC's I don't understand how they're trying to solve this problem.

I just don't really get why Microsoft is so insistent on doing this. Their ecosystem is entrenched in x64-x86.

not sure how it will got for Microsoft especially they couldnt handle the hardware side of things like Nokia/Windows phone situation.

i am not sure if they can compete with Mediatek , let alone Apple..

"History teaches us that history teaches us NOTHING"

'nuff said

Although M$'s track record with phones is less than stellar, their other hdwr (mice, KB's etc) is pretty solid, but they are scaling that back now, so perhaps some of those resources can be applied to this SoC effort...only time will tell....and they're gonna need all the help they can get if they ever hope to catch up to da fruity boys in this arena

But for now, the only potentially good thing that might come from this is moar competition in the ARM SoC space, which usually results in lower prices for us, or better products overall....

 

[Nostras]

But for now, the only potentially good thing that might come from this is moar competition in the ARM SoC space, which usually results in lower prices for us, or better products overall....

That's the problem with Microsoft. They're not.
You expect the ARM devices to be cheap so people are willing to buy in the ecosystem if it's seriously cheaper (and more people means more support which means it's less of a problem which means people are willing to pay more etc., see Apple).
But it's not.
And that's so confusing to me.
What's Microsoft's game?

 

[unwind-protect]

Who going to port all the games to Windows ARM?

And are they going to have a Rosetta 2 equivalent? That's a tall order, Apple's achievement here is remarkable. And Mac apps tend to do less crazy things than Windows games.

But for now, the only potentially good thing that might come from this is moar competition in the ARM SoC space, which usually results in lower prices for us, or better products overall....

But new ARM efforts are not automatically accessible for many OSes, namely Linux. So the question is whether that competition is useful for the consumer as long as MS ARM only runs Windows and Apple ARM doesn't have production-ready alternative OSes. True competition would require a common OS, otherwise you remain locked in.

 

[biggermesh]

I believe they are very interested in pushing arm for azure. Licensing costs and energy consumption could be two important factors.

 

[Denver]

What a huge waste of time and money.

That's the most annoying part, people choose windows for compatibility... Microsoft knows better than anyone the huge weaknesses of this move. Meh.

 

[chrcoluk]

Wish they would abandon this space, then it might stop them trying to copycat Mac OS interface.