Expand / Microsoft’s Volterra project is an Arm-driven developer desktop that will be released later this year. This image shows two Volterra boxes stacked on top of each other.
Microsoft
Windows on Arm is as successful as ever: you can buy multiple Windows laptops and tablets with Arm, and these devices can run almost the full range of available Windows applications thanks to the translation of the x86-to-Arm code. That said, Windows on Arm still accounts for only a fraction of the entire Windows ecosystem, and Arm’s native applications for the platform are still relatively rare.
At its Build developer conference on Tuesday, Microsoft made a number of announcements aimed at strengthening Windows on Arm. The first is Project Volterra, a Microsoft-branded mini desktop computer powered by an unnamed Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. More relevant to developers who already have Arm hardware, Volterra will be accompanied by a set of fully native Arm developer tools.
According to the Microsoft blog post, the company will release native ARM versions of Visual Studio 2022 and VSCode, Visual C ++, Modern .NET 6, the classic .NET framework, Windows Terminal, and both the Windows subsystem for Linux and Windows subsystem for Android. Native versions of Arm from these applications will allow developers to run them without the performance penalty associated with translating x86 code to run on Arm devices, especially useful considering that Windows Arm devices typically don’t have much surplus performance.
Previews of these tools will begin to be available “in the coming weeks.”
Expand / We don’t know exactly which Qualcomm SoC will end up in the heart of Volterra, but hopefully it will be one of the fastest.
Microsoft
As for the Volterra hardware, what we do know is that it runs a Qualcomm SoC with an integrated neural processing unit (NPU), “the best AI computing power” in its class, and support for the processing SDK. Qualcomm neuronal. Microsoft is pushing it as a solution for testing AI and machine learning applications, although depending on the other specifications, it could also be a good general-purpose development box for Windows on Arm applications.
Announcements
The Microsoft unveiling video made it appear that Volterra uses a standard NVMe SSD and will include an active cooling fan, suggesting a bit more expansion and performance than we’ve seen in other Windows on Arm development boxes. It also seems to have a good selection of ports for its size, with three USB-A ports, a mini DisplayPort, an Ethernet port on the back and two USB-C ports on the side. Its stackable black enclosure is also made of “recycled ocean plastic,” like the Ocean Plastic Mouse the company introduced last year.
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Volterra has a decent selection of powerful ports, an Ethernet jack, a mini DisplayPort and three USB-A ports on the back …
Microsoft
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… and a couple of USB-C ports on the side.
Microsoft
Project Volterra will be available “at the end of the year” for an undisclosed price.
This isn’t the first hardware Microsoft has pushed to encourage developers to try Windows on Arm. Last year, it included the $ 219 ECS LIVA QC710 in the Microsoft Store, specifically targeting app developers. Although small and affordable, the 4GB of RAM in the box, the weak Qualcomm 7c processor, the 64GB of internal storage, and the selection of dull ports didn’t exactly give developers much room to stretch their legs. Volterra seems to be able to fix some or all of these shortcomings.
One thing that keeps Windows on Arm right now is the lack of great hardware, more specifically, the lack of great chips that can match or exceed the performance of Intel and AMD while offering better battery life. None of Qualcomm’s chips for Windows computers have been as fast as Apple’s M1, not to mention the faster M1 variants. We may not see Qualcomm’s first M1 Class competitor until the end of 2023, long after Volterra is scheduled to show up.