http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/7/13...pport-qualcomm

Windows 10 will support x86 apps on ARM with emulation. I am hoping that ARM gets the full Win32 apis. It will support select ARM64 chips. The performance looks good though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_GlGglbu1U

This will be on next year's flagship the Snapdragon 835 and later, and it seems it's on Qualcomm chips only.

My guess is that Qualcomm processors have better performance at this moment as well as special hardware capabilities which make it suited for running Windows. I think we will probably see this on Nvidia Tegra processors eventually as Nvidia chips have Directx support and would be perfect for these. Windows RT also ran on Tegras. This new Windows on Arm helps make up for previous mistakes.

Does this mean windows 10 directly poses a threat to Android now?

Different audience. I'd say no. Not directly.

I think this will be useful for thin laptops, tablets and small umpc type devices or small 6" - 8" tablets.

I think there is clearly a market for umpc type devices, devices like the gpd win prove it. The issue with such devices is battery life, graphics performance, availability of low power x86 chips, and cost, ARM processors can address all those factors. Honestly in my experience desktop interfaces are fine on small screens and Windows 10 makes it much better.

This can also benefit the desktop as desktop processor performance has been plateauing, AMD Zen will probably be the last big performance increase for x86 for a long time. Further improvement to x86 would require new manufacturing techniques and chip design not yet available such as transistor stacking and nano technology or new materials. Any improvements can only come on architecture level, x86 puts barriers to further improvement. ARM can improve desktop performance by improving performance per watt. Power consumption and heat limitations prevent substantial improvements in single threaded performance, ARM requires less cooling and has significantly greater performance per watt than x86. Desktops will eventually need to replace x86 and ARM could be that replacement.

Less power consumption can also mean for laptops smaller batteries with similar or greater battery life reducing costs. Reduced overall component costs enable more premium components such as higher resolution screens, better screen technology like oled or possibly screens that don't have wide aspect ratios. Other design innovations could be possible as well.

A dual screen tablet could me more possible as well thanks to lower components costs and improved battery life.

I am not hugely interested in convergence for phones as I prefer small tablets, but smartphones could run full windows while docked. Continuum could actually be useful for something.

I also hoping this has backwards compatibility with Windows CE, if not maybe it could be hacked in.

This could also be useful for portable gaming. There are several android devices with built in controls but they are super low end and the games are a mixed bag. Atom processors lag in graphics, where as ARM processors are constantly improving and could offer a better gaming experience. Windows has more advanced gaming frameworks so PC games could be ported to ARM and enabling full pc games on small device with decent performance, such games could be designed with physical input or pen input in mind rather than touch.

I still don't understand why would anyone need this?

I guess they will implement another contimuum 2.0 or something similar, basically keep the same Windows interface but when you plug the phone to a monitor, the device can run full desktop and run X86 apps. That's the only sensible use I can think...

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Oh I missed the bold. No idea if any one needs but at least I don't want nor need it.

Windows can dominate the tablet market and quite easily since their Metro UI isnt all too terrible and it multitasks nicely. You actually get a full desktop experience rather than a chopped down Android experience.

Really?

Let me see...

• The vast majority (about 99%) of commercial software is provided only for Windows;
• The vast majority (about 99%) of Windows software is provided only in a binary;
• The vast majority (about 99%) of that is built only for x86.

So... 99% of 99% of 99% = 0.99 x 0.99 x 0.99 = 0.97 = 97%.
Those 97% of users are currently stuck with a Wintel machine. With something like this, they can run their applications on an ARM tablet.

Potential users:

• Warehouses (inventory management)
• Hospitals
• GPs
• Any small companies running any kind of accounting software
• Kids playing games
• ...

Any of those have a more legitimate use and a more pressing need for running an x86 application on an ARM machine than you have for running a Linux on... just about anything