Experiment 19: How Windows NT was streamlined for Windows Phone 8

Experiment 19

Microsoft Research has published a few more details on their skunkworks project that commenced in 2008 to bring the Windows NT core to ARM. Better still this goes on to show that non only were they successful, but too they were able to beat Windows CE in performance tests on the aforementioned hardware.

Windows CE, on which Windows Mobile and Windows Phone seven run, has been the mainstay of Microsoft's mobile efforts for a very long time. The trouble of course is that it's never actually been Windows at all and for the most part it an entirely carve up beast. Windows NT, the core of Microsoft'southward standard Windows products, was long considered too large and resource heavy to work well on mobile devices. Experiment xix was a project to prove that non simply could NT come to mobile, information technology could do then and vanquish Windows CE in the process. It was a success.

For Microsoft this must accept been a breakthrough moment, they decided to drib CE for its mobile platforms and go with this new slimmed downwards cadre (MinWin). Whilst we already know that the core of Windows Phone viii and Windows RT tablets share a like genesis, information technology'southward nice to see some backstory on where and how this came to laissez passer.

Bringing NT to ARM whilst compacting the fundamentals of Windows has probable been a mammoth undertaking. The fruits of this drive to slim downward the in one case lumbering NT core are being seen clearly now. Windows 7 really had MinWin as its core and further streamlining of the Os ways at present Windows viii runs faster on the same hardware.

As an interesting aside, I was nether the impression that Windows Telephone 8 would require dual core to run efficiently, due to its footing on the more traditional windows technologies. That is at odds with what I'thou reading and seeing here in this snippet from the projection. MinWin shows it's able to run faster on the same hardware. That dispels whatever rationale I had for MS dropping back up for older Windows Phone 7 hardware. That of course is not to say there aren't a great many other reasons why information technology can't run on electric current gen devices due to hardware requirements or but the patently reason that MS want to drib these lower end devices and move briskly forward with a platform that's fit to tough it out with the higher end devices of today.

Whilst my feelings about Microsoft'southward determination to leave electric current gen devices backside is mixed, my feelings toward a properly joined up eco system running roughly the aforementioned core is very warm indeed. As a long fourth dimension Windows user, I have seen the benefits of having a wholly formed eco arrangement feeding in and augmenting the other parts. You tin can see this with customer and server versions of Windows conspicuously. Having a mutual windows core running on all of their hereafter devices will have so many benefits for Microsoft. Already we are seeing traditional Windows running faster and more efficiently on lower stop hardware, a straight effect of the need to have an agile cadre that runs well on mobile. Conversely, Windows Phone 8 will benefit from long established and familiar applied science from Windows NT. We can wait forward to finally having a highly scalable core, meaning dual and quad core phones are only the start. In Windows Phone 8 we'll get Bitlocker to secure the device to enterprise levels of security, common driver models and a whole lot more.

Windows Phone 8 & Windows Together, Stronger, Faster.

Forcefulness through unity of cadre design

If breaking compatibility with the by and non offering Windows Phone 7 devices an upgrade means we become a more scalable, secure and rich future, I'chiliad prepared to have that. Windows Phone won't be a side project at Microsoft anymore. Being a true fellow member of the Windows family will mean that it will be part of Microsoft's single biggest engineering attempt. The results of this project will be striking the shelves in the Oct timeframe in the form of Windows 8 and Windows Phone viii. Next yr I wonder volition nosotros run into the Xbox vNext based on a like core once again. I would be very surprised if it we did non.

As ever, I am bully to know what you think. Are you happy to see Windows NT finally reaching Windows Phone? Would y'all have preferred MS kept Windows Phone split?

Source Microsoft via Mary Jo Foley

Notwithstanding here? Want more to read, okay, check these too:-

MSR Pages nigh Menlo and Experiment xix Aqueduct nine
Mark Russinovich: Inside Windows 7
Experiment nineteen: Re-imagining the Windows Phone Platform

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