Seven years ago, Microsoft surprised the world, and its hardware partners, by launching its first laptop: the Surface Book. It was a failure. But unlike a few Microsoft hardware experiments I could mention, the Surface Tablet, the Surface RT, and the infamous Kin Phone, Microsoft continued to hack the Surface Book. Today, its descendants like the Surface Laptop Studio are pretty good laptops.
Now Microsoft is going to try something new: its first desktop through Project Volterra.
Believe it or not, instead of running on an AMD or Intel processor, it will be an ARM machine. Now I know what you're thinking: "This is going to be another dud like Windows RT or a limited-use machine like the Surface Pro X, right?" In fact, I don't think so. I think Microsoft will succeed with ARM this time. And, if you know me, you know that I'm not a fan of Microsoft.
You see, it all depends on the developers. Instead of emulating x86 on ARM, which always guaranteed slow programs, this time Microsoft is offering an end-to-end software development kit (SDK) and programming tools that will be native to ARM.
The Volterra project will include (deep breath):
- visual studio 2022
- visual studio code
- VisualC ++
- .NET 6 and modern Java
- Classic .NET Framework
- Windows Terminal
- Windows subsystem for Linux
- Windows Subsystem for Android
In other words, Microsoft will give programmers everything they need to create programs on ARM that can really take advantage of its architectural strengths. Leopards can change their spots! I'm not ready to declare that WinARM will replace Wintel, but it's a big hardware step for Microsoft.
The Project Volterra PC is expected to run on an as-yet-unnamed Snapdragon processor. It will feature four such processors and a neural processing unit (NPU) for artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) programming. Qualcomm Technologies will also provide a Qualcomm Neural Processing SDK for this new Windows toolkit.
Rumor has it that the Surface team is building it with Qualcomm and it will come with a flagship Snapdragon System on a Chip (SoC). It would also represent a step forward for Windows on ARM. In the past, Microsoft has eschewed cutting-edge ARM technology.
The new machine will also include what Computerworld's Rob Enderle calls an Azure Compute Unit (ACU). This chip is intended to allow Windows PCs to more easily transfer workloads between the PC and the cloud as needed.
Hmmm, a Windows desktop that is based on the cloud. Where have I heard this idea before?
The desktop PC itself should be about the size of a Mac mini. Although Microsoft hasn't released the specs yet, I can already tell you that it will have a Gigabit Ethernet port, Wi-Fi 6 support, and an HDMI port for video. Trusting Azure, I doubt it will have a very large SSD, say 512MB, or many USB-C ports.
Microsoft will not try to sell this to consumers. Your job will be to help AI/ML developers and programmers. That said, I know some of my ARM fan friends are already itching to get their hands on it.
Me? I believe this may be Microsoft's most significant advancement in development hardware from Azure. I will be watching it with great interest to see what Microsoft offers and how well it works.
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