Microsoft planning its own ARM CPUs for Surface

Microsoft is relying entirely on ARM-based chips from its partner Qualcomm for the latest models in the Surface series. Sooner or later, however, the company’s own ARM CPUs, which are currently being developed in Redmond, could also be used.

Surface to get Microsoft’s own ARM chips

According to a report by experienced industry specialist Charlie Demerijan, who published via his portal SemiAccurate was published, Microsoft is continuing to work on developing its own ARM processors for its mobile devices in the Surface series. In the long term, these are to replace chips from other manufacturers such as Intel and ultimately Qualcomm, it says.

The project is being supported with large sums of money in order to ultimately ensure that alternatives to the x86 processors from Intel and AMD can also successfully gain a foothold in the market for Windows devices. Microsoft is “actively targeting x86,” says Demerijan. His sources have been hearing corresponding information for more than a year. Microsoft Surface Pro 11 Hands-on

Microsoft to slow down AI chips from Intel & AMD

According to the report, this also includes Microsoft actively trying to undermine the success of new x86 platforms. In the run-up to Computex 2024, where Qualcomm and Microsoft were drumming up great fanfare for the new Snapdragon X-series ARM chips, interventions were made that prevented announcements about AI-capable PCs that had actually been planned by the manufacturers from the x86 camp.

Intel and AMD were effectively banned at short notice from using the new “Copilot+” branding, which is used to identify chips that have at least 40 TOPS NPU performance, in order to create better conditions for marketing the ARM platform, according to the allegation. Intel and AMD lost a lot of marketing money as a result, it continues.

Microsoft is currently allegedly trying to sabotage the launch of Intel’s “Lunar Lake” family by ensuring that no meaningful benchmark tests can be carried out with the new chips in conjunction with the Cinebench software shortly before they are widely available.

Purely by chance, two weeks before the September 24, 2024 deadline, one of the latest Windows updates introduced a bug that is now causing Cinebench to have problems with “Lunar Lake”. For Demerijan, all of this is evidence that Microsoft is once again using its well-known “dirty tactics” to influence the market in favor of its own interests.