Microsoft has long built its Windows Server to run on the chips which are designed by the Intel but it has decided to move away from Intel to ARM. ARM chips sales are growing at a substantial rate wherein it is giving stiff competition to Intel which simply means that there are devices present in market which actively makes use of ARM rather Intel chips. Therefore Microsoft has decided to demonstrate the next version of the Windows Server which will run like a charm on the processors based in the technology of the ARM. Secondly it is also being speculated that this move will further help in cracking the complete dominance of the Intel in the field of data center chips.
Microsoft has taken to a blogpost to announce this move wherein it elaborated that a collaboration has been made with the Qualcomm for the same effect. Qualcomm is a leading supplier of the chipsets for the mobile devices on the global scale and apart from Qualcomm there is another lesser known player named Cavium with which Microsoft has collaborated. This collaboration has helped Microsoft in developing and adapting the Windows Server to run on the ARM server chips which ease and grace. In short Microsoft has worked in close relation with a number of ARM suppliers in order to optimize its Windows Server to work for different data center needs and demands.
Why suddenly Microsoft moves to ARM?
Microsoft has stated that their testing has shown that ARM server chips tends to offer highest value for money as well performance for some of the key tasks which includes the search and machine learning. Microsoft has clarified that they had decided to come up with a ARM version of the Windows Server because they are devoting themselves to the open standards in the computing hardware and this particular was created only for the internal use on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing service only.
The ARM design is also a part of Microsoft next generation of server hardware which is aimed towards keeping the costs down. A number of new hardware is being developed by a wide number of companies under the name of Project Olympus.
Microsoft also understands that ARM is set to rise up to the dominance of Intel in upcoming years. It is vital have Windows Server running at its best ability will help in providing the necessary platforms for the end users.
On other hand Qualcomm has also revealed its plan of launching the ARM based Centriq 2400 server chips which will be compatible with the Microsoft standards set for the cloud computing systems. Industry analysts products that the shift of the major chip makers and Microsoft towards aggressively building on the ARM will help in gaining an edge over the Intel as well it will emerge as a serious competitors to Intel in the field of cloud computing in near future.
