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| Microsoft's exclusive contract with Qualcomm is about to expire |
Qualcomm is said to have entered into an exclusive agreement with Microsoft to run the Windows operating system on the Arm processor. This prevents other chip makers from competing in this field.
The two companies launched Windows laptops with ARM processors in 2016 and have yet to release any devices without Qualcomm chips.
Qualcomm is said to have entered into an exclusive agreement with Windows for the Arm processor. But it runs out soon.
Qualcomm has always had a close relationship with Microsoft. If you look at the Windows Phone era, the Qualcomm chip is the only one supported. In the modern age of Windows Phone, you won't find a phone that doesn't have a Snapdragon chipset.
The report emerged days after an event by MediaTek and media representatives who discussed their ambitions to build their own chips for Windows on PCs with ARM processors.
If the exclusive deal between Microsoft and Qualcomm is nearing completion, it could open the door to more vendors who support Windows processors through Arms.
Samsung, MediaTek, and even Apple's M1 chip can support Windows over Arm.
Samsung may also want to compete with its own Exynos processors, especially given its recent partnership with AMD over graphics issues.
However, you can run Windows on a Mac with an Apple M1 processor through the Parallels Desktop virtual machine software. But Apple doesn't support Boot Camp on Macs with M1 processors, and Microsoft is giving an arm version of Windows to PC makers.
It's not clear if Microsoft will license Windows to Apple through Arm. Or does Apple support such a scenario?
The software giant is also committed to designing ARM-based processors for servers and potential future Surface devices.
Microsoft transaction under Windows via arm processors
The software giant started researching these new chips over a year ago. It is said that it is mainly used for Azure cloud service servers.
The company currently uses Intel processors for most of its Azure cloud services, and most of the company's Surface series runs on Intel chips.
Microsoft broke this record by partnering with AMD and Qualcomm for custom chipsets for the Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro X.
There are also rumors that the software giant is also collaborating with AMD to develop AMD-based laptop processors.