64bit Windows Apps on ARM64?

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It’s possible that 64bit Windows apps may be coming to Windows ARM64 devices. Pretty exciting news for those who want to have more of that 64bit desktop experience on the go. Even more so when looking at the newly announced Microsoft Surface Pro X. Presently 32bit emulation is already offered but now Neowin is reporting that they’ve confirmed 64bit emulation may be coming in 2021. Admittedly 2021 is a still a bit off but considering that at one point it was thought it couldn’t happen at all on ARM it’s nice to hear it could be in the works.

Some points to note for the Surface Pro X:

  • Display is 13″ 2880×1920
  • RAM is either 8GB or 16GB LPDDR4x @ 3733Mbps
  • Storage is a removable SSD with 128GB up to 512GB
  • 2x USB-C ports
  • Camera’s are 5.0MP front and 10.0MP rear(1080p and 4k)
  • Dimensions are 11.3 in x 8.2 in x 0.28 in (287 mm x 208 mm x 7.3 mm)
  • Wireless 802.11ac, BT 5.0, Upto Gigabit LTE Advanced Pro
  • Battery is up to 13 hours of usage

A drawback of ARM devices is the gap between the desktop options versus the mobile experience. It looks like this gap is slowly shortening. We have seen desktop offerings in the previous Surface models with Windows 64 bit using Intel Core i7 cpu’s but it seems that Microsoft is still trying to bridge the ARM end of the product line.

Discussion

Peter Brosdahl
As a child of the 70’s I was part of the many who became enthralled by the video arcade invasion of the 1980’s. Saving money from various odd jobs I purchased my first computer from a friend of my dad, a used Atari 400, around 1982. Eventually it would end up being a lifelong passion of upgrading and modifying equipment that, of course, led into a career in IT support.

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