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@ 2012/06/06Last night we saw NVIDIA running Windows 8 RT via ASUS' Tablet 600, and today we got a glimpse of Qualcomm doing the same. Qualcomm's reference tablet features an APQ8060A, the modem-less version of the Krait based 8960 we've seen in HTC's One X on AT&T. The two Krait cores are clocked at up to 1.5GHz. GPU duties are handled by the integrated Adreno 225, which appears to have made the transition to Windows 8 just fine.
Performance seems very good, and Qualcomm says things should improve even further by the time final software is ready. We asked why none of Qualcomm's partners were displaying Snapdragon powered Windows 8 hardware and the answer was those partners weren't ready to unveil their industrial design just yet. Qualcomm remains committed to having S4 based Windows 8 tablets available whenever Microsoft decides to officially launch Windows RT.
To be honest I am a bit surprised by Windows RT. I initially expected only the x86 based Windows 8 tablets to make sense but with ARM based Office support and Microsoft really driving Metro, I do believe there's hope for Windows RT. There has to be some sort of an advantage however. As long as Windows RT tablets can come it at significantly lower prices than their x86 Clovertrail based counterparts I see a real market for these things.
Performance seems very good, and Qualcomm says things should improve even further by the time final software is ready. We asked why none of Qualcomm's partners were displaying Snapdragon powered Windows 8 hardware and the answer was those partners weren't ready to unveil their industrial design just yet. Qualcomm remains committed to having S4 based Windows 8 tablets available whenever Microsoft decides to officially launch Windows RT.
To be honest I am a bit surprised by Windows RT. I initially expected only the x86 based Windows 8 tablets to make sense but with ARM based Office support and Microsoft really driving Metro, I do believe there's hope for Windows RT. There has to be some sort of an advantage however. As long as Windows RT tablets can come it at significantly lower prices than their x86 Clovertrail based counterparts I see a real market for these things.
