Microsoft and Qualcomm earlier announced Windows 10 on ARM and that Snapdragon 835 is the first Snapdragon processor to support full Windows 10. While this opened lots of possibilities in terms of Cellular Windows 10 PCs and legacy Win32 apps coming to ARM, we didn’t hear much about Windows 10 Mobile on ARM64. This is very desirable because it leads to the mythical Surface Phone.
Now Microsoft documentations not only talk about Windows 10 Mobile ARM64 but we for the very first time we see the mention of Windows 10 Mobile X86. The document also mentions these two Windows 10 Mobile architectures in future.
As per the official documentation,
| Exceptions | This is a requirement for Windows 10 Mobile (ARM, ARM64, x86), but recommended for Windows 10 for desktop editions (Home, Pro, Enterprise, and Education) (x64, x86) and Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview x64. It will be required in the future for those architectures. Note that there are some exceptions to this requirement to accommodate the registration of Component Object Model (COM) objects and Media Foundation Transforms (MFT) using the AddReg directive. Refer to the Design Notes section of this requirement for additional details. |
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| Applies to | Windows 10 for desktop editions (Home, Pro, Enterprise, and Education) x64 Windows 10 for desktop editions (Home, Pro, Enterprise, and Education) x86 Windows 10 Mobile ARM Windows 10 Mobile x86 Windows Server 2016 x64 |
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We have seen reports about X86 Emulator on ARM64 coming to Windows 10 Mobile. But having Windows 10 Mobile X86 as a standalone Mobile architecture makes this possibility redundant. A phone running Windows 10 Mobile X86 should be able to run X86 Win32 apps natively. Surface Phone, the ultimate business mobile device may be running this Windows 10 Mobile architecture.
Windows 10 Mobile ARM64 may be for the more consumer-oriented Windows 10 Mobile Phones that perhaps won’t need legacy Win32 apps support.
We have shared via our sources earlier that Redstone 3 will be Mobile-focused iteration of Windows 10 unlike Redstone 1 and 2. So, hopefully we will these two Windows 10 Mobile architecture arriving with Redstone 3.
We exclusively reported about Surface Phone prototypes being able to install and run X86 apps via Continuum. Our sources also confirmed that Surface Phone launch is delayed now to late 2017.
You can read our Surface Phone rumor / leaks round-up by clicking here.
Source: MSDN
