Tech tends to be a copycat kind of business, and it looks like Microsoft is considering
a high-profile copycat move at the moment,
making its own CPUs. The company they'd be copying, of course,
is none other than their old rival, Apple, whose M1 and M2 chips, based on the ARM architecture,
have been extremely impressive in terms of performance and power efficiency.
Though this isn't that surprising, considering that Apple designed them
to integrate tightly with the company's own software.
But Windows is a very different beast in the sense that it'll run on just about any PC,
and it doesn't just ship on Microsoft's own systems,
like the Surface lineup. And believe it or not, Microsoft has recently tried to do bespoke silicon
with the SQ1, which showed up in 2019's Surface Pro X.
Thing is, it didn't go as well as Apple's M series.
So then, why would Microsoft be trying to design its own chips again?
Massacism? At this point, we can only offer some educated speculation,
as the rumors are based on a couple of facts. One, that Microsoft is hiring chip architects,
and just the broader market forces that seem to be at play,
being that Redmond is likely threatened by the success that Apple has had with their M1 and M2.
Apple Silicon has created a multi-billion dollar increase
in revenue for the Mac division, and this doesn't just spell bad news for Surface,
but for all Windows devices, especially on the mobile side,
since the superior battery life of M Silicon is a major selling point.
But there's another reason that Microsoft might dive into chip design
that has both everything and nothing to do with Apple.
Apple's breakup with Intel wasn't just about wanting to optimize its hardware for its own software.
There have been lots of rumblings about Apple's frustration
with Intel's slow pace of development, and even though Team Blue has shifted to hybrid CPU design,
specifically to improve battery life on laptops, there hasn't been too much from Intel
that you could truly call groundbreaking in quite some time.
And to be fair to them, part of this may be due to the x86 architecture itself,
as it's not like Apple ditched Intel just to make a deal with AMD.
So it's natural that Microsoft would also want to go a completely different route
to take advantage of the higher performance per watt that is typically associated with ARM-based chip designs,
especially if they feel that the Intel AMD duopoly is holding them back.
But one big obstacle that Microsoft may have to face
is exactly how they will integrate Windows
with a different chip architecture, even one that they developed for themselves.
Windows has been primarily written for x86 chips
for over 35 years. And although Microsoft has been trying
to push Windows on ARM for, I mean, over a decade now,
the vast majority of Windows software is written to run on x86 chips.
And unlike a typical Mac user, there are a huge number of Windows users
who don't necessarily make extensive use of the included first-party software.
Meaning that without a plan for robust third-party software support,
Microsoft's foray into throwing significant resources
at its own chip could end up backfiring. But there's another consideration we haven't discussed yet.
The fact that Windows 12 is expected to rely more heavily on AI features.
We've already seen Microsoft integrate chat GPT into Bing and Office.
And it looks like they would like a chip with part of the dye dedicated to AI and machine learning
without waiting around to see what Intel and AMD come up with.
This reflects a broader trend where companies like Amazon and Google
have been putting their own silicon into everything from data centers to smartphones.
And Microsoft has even been reported to be looking at custom chips
for its Azure cloud computing platform as well. Ultimately, we're gonna find out exactly what their plan is
no sooner than late 2024 when most industry insiders are expecting Windows 12
to be released. But until then, all we can do is hope that it goes better
than when Microsoft tried to sell us the Zoom RIP.
If you enjoyed this video, hey, leave a like and check out our other videos.
Or you can leave a comment with suggestions for how we could do better or any future topics you'd like to see covered.
And don't forget to subscribe.