Windows 8 on ARM on Track, Microsoft Says

From PC World: Anyone can take Windows 8 for a spin now that Microsoft has launched the so-called "consumer preview" version of the software at an event in Barcelona on Wednesday.

The company said that ARM processor reference designs for Windows 8 are in testing and making the same progress as those running on X86 chips. This is the first time that Windows will run on ARM, widely used in smartphones and tablets. Given the progress that Microsoft said it is making, some company observers think Windows 8 will likely launch this year.

Executives at the launch event stressed that Windows 8 was built to work on a wide variety of devices. "The goal should be that the OS should scale with you," said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft.

Microsoft executives demonstrated Windows 8 on tablets, netbooks and a massive touchscreen monitor. They showed the software running on reference design hardware using ARM processors. They also demonstrated how someone might use both touch and a mouse and keyboard to control a monitor.

The demonstrations looked familiar to people who've seen the developer preview of the operating system, which has been available since September. But Sinofsky said that Microsoft has made 100,000 code changes to Windows 8 since then. "So the consumer preview in some ways will represent a whole new product. It's more polished, more refined. We think of it as complete all the way from the low levels through to the UI," Sinofsky said.

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