What do you want to know:
- Microsoft has unveiled its first Windows devkit on ARM.
- It’s powered by a Snapdragon SoC and will arrive later this year.
- It has an integrated NPU and is similar in shape and size to a Mac mini.
Microsoft announced new hardware during Build 2022! Given that Build is a developer conference, it’s no surprise to learn that the hardware announced today is a development kit designed to help developers build applications that take advantage of new AI capabilities through an integrated neural processing unit (NPU). as well as support for Windows 11 on ARM.
Introducing the Volterra project… #Rad pic.twitter.com/llU73ih5A8May 24, 2022
The development kit is called “Project Volterra” and is powered by an as yet unnamed Snapdragon processor. The device is a mini desktop computer, similar in shape and size to a Mac mini or at the base of a Surface Studio, just without the screen attached. This dev kit is also Microsoft’s first “desktop” PC, although it has no plans to sell the device as a consumer product.
Not much else is known about the hardware at this time, including specs, price, or even a release date. The company says it will share more “at a later date.” Windows Central understands that the Surface team built the hardware in partnership with Qualcomm and it will ship with a “flagship SoC”. This would make it the first and only Windows dev kit on ARM to ship with a flagship Snapdragon processor.
Additionally, Qualcomm announced a new Qualcomm Neural Processing SDK Toolkit for Windows, which will help developers explore AI scenarios in their applications. Microsoft is also committed to building NPU support into the Windows platform end-to-end.
For Windows on ARM in particular, Microsoft has announced that its end-to-end SDK will be Arm-native, with some of the tools launching in preview soon. The Arm-native toolchain consists of:
- Visual Studio 2022
- Visual Studio Code
- Visual C++
- .NET 6 and modern Java
- Classic .NET Framework
- Windows Terminal
- Windows Subsystem for Linux
- Windows Subsystem for Android
Microsoft also affirms its commitment to an “open hardware ecosystem” for Windows, which sees Microsoft evolving the platform to support new hardware platforms and technologies, such as “GPUs that make user experiences app, Wi-Fi and cellular chipsets that ensure devices are always connected and processors including MIPS, x86, Alpha, Itanium and x64.”
The launch of a new Microsoft-built Windows on ARM SDK reaffirms its commitment to the platform. Microsoft is all-in on Windows on ARM and wants it to become just another option for Windows customers looking for their next PC. With new Snapdragon chips getting better every year, we could almost be there.
Be sure to check out all the news from this year’s Developer Conference on our Build 2022 page!
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