AMD has may be finally ending their Windows OS exclusivity and could eventually design chips to run Google’s Android and Chrome OS in PCs and tablets. The chips will likely be based on x86 and ARM architecture.

We have seen Windows tablets with AMD’s Z-01 and Z-60 tablet chips. But those slates didn’t perform well on the market. Moving to Android is certainly good for the company. Earlier AMD said that they had no interest in Android, but it appears like they have recognized how quickly the tech world is shifting away from Windows.

Lisa Su, AMD senior vice president and general manager of global business units, said “We are very committed to Windows 8; we think it’s a great operating system, but we also see a market for Android and Chrome developing as well“.

There have been no hints regarding when the Android tablets will be launched, but AMD’s latest comments make it clear that they are actively interested in working on such devices. Meanwhile, cheap Windows 8.1 and Android tablets with Bay Trail chips from AMD’s rival Intel will be available sometime in the near future.

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This week during an interview at CES, a senior project manager for Windows Phone, Greg Sullivan, didn’t exactly deny the possibility of a forthcoming Windows Phone handset with an Intel chip.  ”Our architecture is such that it’s hardware independent. For the same reason that Windows 8 [tablets] could run on Wintel, right now Windows Phone is on Qualcomm. We have a portable OS architecture.” While that leaves as many questions as before the statement, the lack of denial certainly makes the notion possible.

Intel Mobile Communications Group has a similar stance with President Hermann Eul stating that Intel is open to the idea of supporting the Windows Phone platform with an x86 chip. He also stated the decision would be made according to how successful the Windows Phone was in the future.

Intel has already seen success in the mobile phone chip market with companies like ZTE, Motorola and others already building smartphones with Atom and other Intel chips. Some tests have shown the Atom chips having better performance and battery life than that of many current ARM chips. Recent benchmarks, if they are to be trusted, ran on a Lenovo Atom-equipped smartphone showed performance nearly twice that of a Droid DNA with a Snapdragon S4.

Could Intel chips be the new standard for upcoming phones or will ARM always dominant the mobile sector?

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Arguably one of the biggest weaknesses of Windows Vista was the fact that many of the PCs that used it weren’t really up to snuff, hardware wise. The truth is that Vista wasn’t that bad if you had the right hardware, unfortunately Microsoft didn’t enforce any minimums and so most of us never really saw the ‘good side’ of Vista (though Windows 7 cured many of these problems).

Microsoft isn’t repeating any of these mistakes with its Windows 8 tablets, and has already set some specific hardware requirements that all Win8 tablets will have to meet.

For those that haven’t followed Windows 8 as it develops, it is a big step forward for mobile and touch users everywhere with a new start menu replacement UI called METRO, which is optimized for touch technology and mobile app use. Another huge change is that Windows 8 will support both traditional x86 processors and ARM technology (which is used the wide majority of smartphones and tablets).

So what are the requirements? Windows tablets must have a 5-point digitizer for input, NFC “touch marks”, five hardware buttons (Power, Rotation Lock, Windows Key, Volume Key (up/down), a button combo for the CTRL+ALT+DEL command, 2 second resume (for Intel chips), and no reboot driver upgrades.

We can also expect at least 10GB free space, UEFI, Wlan and Bluetooth 4.0 +LE, 1366×768 minimum resolution, 720p camera, ambient light sensor, magnetometer, accelerometer (3 axes), gyroscope, USB 2.0, and speakers.

As for Windows laptop/desktop requirements? Beyond just recommended specs, there will be no enforcements but on vendors here and Microsoft guarantees that any machine that runs Windows 7 will have no problem with Windows 8. Since Windows 7 has more minimalistic requirements than Vista, it stands to reason that any machine made for Vista or above will upgrade without any major hitches.

Things are really spicing up with Windows 8, and it looks to be one of the most epic versions yet.

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According to ZDNET, IDC research analysts have made 10 predictions for trends in 2012 computing. One such prediction states that Windows 8 may not reach the hands of the traditional PC users, that is, those with the PCs bundled with keyboard, mouse, and all the usual PC hardware. In other words, there might be no upgrade path from Windows 7 to Windows 8 for “legacy” PC hardware.

Conversely, and within the framework of this prediction, Microsoft might see no value of stretching its Windows 8 Metro UI paradigm to reach users with vastly different legacy interface. In any case, even if  Windows 8 might work fairly well on relatively current enterprise PCs, enterprises could hardly see how values of switching to the Metro UI can offset the costs of upgrading the underlying production software. At the same time, compatibility and stability issues would become almost inevitable.

Metro 8 UI as it was demoed at this spring and summer Windows 8 Preview events was probably a paper-thin UI on top of more or less tweaked “traditional” underlying Windows 7 structure. So, in a sense, these two can coexist even on legacy PC hardware, at least if the Metro UI can be made more friendly with mouse clicks and keyboard shortcuts.

Yet this notion is obviously not what Microsoft might have in mind.  As I wrote here earlier, Windows 8 may lose support of traditional, legacy PC software, and concentrate on new, touch-centered versions of application software instead- at least on the ARM side of the fence.

This move is greatly influenced by Microsoft’s clear desire to develop Windows 8 predominantly for mobile devices such as tablets. At least at this point though, it seems smartphones will continue to use the Windows CE-based “Windows Phone” operating system.

Some of the problems of marrying the largely incompatible new touch-based user interface with legacy desktop application software include overall consumer acceptance and general problems porting x86 software over to ARM. Additionally, x86 tablets will likely remain nothing more than a niche product (at least in the near future).

The term “ARM architectures” is a way to describe a vast,  unhinged array of very incompatible System-on-Chips (SoCs), Application Processors (APs), and all other poorly categorized and defined platforms. Many of these even stray off from whatever the quite loose ARM general compliance specs may demand. There are some nuances, but roughly speaking these discrepances are in the very root of fragmentation problem for Android devices.

Naturally, Microsoft will never let Android-type fragmentation raise its ugly head in their mobile devices, especially tablets. The big problem is that apart from just a few perspective ARM chips claiming that they can run Microsoft Windows software (TI OMAP5, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4, etc.), there’s no indication that any of existing ARM chips and also latest prototypes might power tablets that could run Windows 8 smoothly and achieved a coveted Microsoft certification.

Summing this all up, the Microsoft’s apparent move to unify the Windows 8 experience under a single roof (the Metro UI) for all its phones, tablets, and PCs can be hindered by many insurmountable obstacles. From the traditional PC users’ perspective, this development may look like they could be left out until the wide acceptance of touch-based office computers and very powerful ARM tablets.

For IDC predictions to come true, there’s quite a bit of time before Q3-Q4 of 2012 though.

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