Microsoft extends reach with ARM

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Microsoft has signed a new architecture licence deal with ARM, providing the Redmond giant with greater access to the processor designer’s intellectual property.

The agreement means Microsoft will have access to both ARM’s processor blueprints and the instruction set the chips use.

Microsoft and ARM have been working together since 1997 and the latter’s architecture is used in Windows Phone and Windows Embedded, along with other operating systems.

Not many details were forthcoming on what will be done with the extra access to the technology, but KD Hallman, general manager for Microsoft, said the agreement will help the firm improve “research and development activities for ARM-based products”.

“ARM is an important partner for Microsoft,” Hallman added.

No details on the agreement were released, including on how long the deal will last or will cost. ARM has previously handed similar architecture licences to Qualcomm, Marvell and Infineon.

“It’s a fairly in-depth license that we have granted them. It is really about the recipe for the ARM architecture,” Ian Drew, executive vice president of ARM, told IT PRO.

“We’re a very open licensing company … we don’t put stipulations on what people can go use, so it is really up to Microsoft how they use it,” Drew said.

Microsoft and ARM “have a great ongoing working relationship”, he added, and the processor developer expects the relationship to continue and grow in the future.

Earlier this year, there were rumours of Apple potentially acquiring ARM, but no more has come of the talk.

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