This is a bit of a shocker. I won't believe it fully till I hear a Microsoft press release confirm it, but it's a pretty convincing article (coupled with other news articles I've been reading lately about MS and ARM):

 

http://eetimes.eu/uk/217200966

 

I'm cautiously supportive of the move, as Intel is almost as anti-competitive as Microsoft is, but receives little to no negative reputation for such (it's currently about to get a billion dollar fine in the EU courts for anti-competitive practices against AMD similar to the one Microsoft got from the EU a few years ago). So a move to increase chip-maker competition is a good thing.

ARM chips are good!

i don't see how intel can complain. they need MS as much as MS needs them.

 

one of the advantages of linux, btw, is the increased chip support.

 

taks

Interesting news, if true. I'm thinking they see netbook sales as the future for Windows, and are looking to solidify their position there. Since Apple seems to thus far be ceding the netbook battle to Windows and Linux, it's not a bad move.

Interesting news, if true. I'm thinking they see netbook sales as the future for Windows, and are looking to solidify their position there. Since Apple seems to thus far be ceding the netbook battle to Windows and Linux, it's not a bad move.

 

All of which I probably could've not commented on had I bothered to read the article.

 

Still, interesting. I think the Intel marketing power will still keep the Atom in the bulk of future netbooks, though.

With netbook sales slowing, and Intel "marketing power" (aka. "we pay you if you exclusively use our chips") possibly broken here in Europe, who knows