The end of the affair?
Of course there is another alternative. What if Microsoft offered a full version of Windows (as opposed to Windows Mobile or Windows CE) that used the ARM, rather than X86 (Intel and AMD) instruction set? Then it would be a straight hardware fight with Intel, in which ARM hopes its low power, low price processors will have an advantage.
Morris wouldn't be drawn on whether this will ever happen, but he seemed quietly confident it would, pointing out that Microsoft will be missing out on an increasingly large market if it doesn't. "The pieces for fundamental change are already within the industry," he said.
Funnily enough, a lot of ARM's work in trying to lure Microsoft away from Intel is being done by the chip giant itself. Intel was a founder member of the Open Handset Alliance - the Android development group - and has been very vocal in promoting its own version of Linux, designed with mobile internet devices in mind, called Moblin.
An interesting insight into a possible cooling of the relationship between the two companies emerged on a recent Intel software blog. Software engineering manager David Stewart wrote an account of getting heckled by Microsoft when promoting Moblin at a recent open source software conference.
"The heckling came when I mentioned fast shutdown," wrote Stewart. "You see Moblin doesn't have a shutdown ‘button' or anything in the OS. We just use the power button from the netbook itself. I began kidding around and saying, ‘I remember one particular OS, which will remain nameless, in which you had to hit the 'Start' button to 'Stop' the computer.'
"From the next booth, I hear a call, ‘Hey! We're listening here!' Yes, the booth next door was the Microsoft booth. Hey, I didn't mention the OS, did I? Guess they're just sensitive."
Of course that was just one blog post, but it's quite possible that Intel's increasing activity in the open-source world has alienated Microsoft a tad and could contribute to its willingness to further embrace ARM.
