Microsoft And Qualcomm Are Bringing The Windows 10 Experience To Snapdragon Chipsets

The mobile processors will now be able to emulate x86 programmes such as Photoshop natively.

Harshad
00:31 14th Dec, 2016

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Microsoft and Qualcomm are working together to bring the full PC experience on next-gen Snapdragon chipsets. Based on the ARM Architecture, these SoCs (System on Chip) were not capable running programmes meant for x86 platform.

For those not in the know, ARM is an RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) architecture, which is extremely power efficient but sadly nowhere near the x86 performance wise. On the other hand, the x86 is a CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing) architecture, which can solve complex things in a single instruction. Little wonder then, that the x86 platform goes quite heavy on power. Usually, smartphones and other portable devices use ARM processors for the sake of longer battery life. It requires relatively less transistors for their reduced instruction set, so the size of die is significantly compact.

The latest development comes as a good news for those wanting to access full blown PC software on ARM devices. This new technique emulates x86 on ARM chips. Since Windows 10 mobile can't run Win32 (x86) apps natively. HP used virtual access to Windows environments and applications in the cloud using Workspace solution, so the apps run in the cloud and are transmitted to the device, which serves as full windows 10 experience but it needs a reliable and constant Internet connection to work.

The x86 Emulation layer will enable ARM processors to run Win32 apps natively, which is a big leap. Soon, you can carry a fully functional PC in your pocket. Though ARM processors are not as powerful as x86 processors, Snapdragon 820 is good enough to run Windows 10, Adobe Photoshop (Win32/X86) and other apps exceptionally well.