According to informed sources, Taiwanese chip design giant MediaTek is developing a personal computer chip based on the Arm architecture, which will run Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Last month, Microsoft released a new generation of laptops featuring chips designed based on Arm Holdings technology, capable of running artificial intelligence applications considered to be the future of consumer computing. MediaTek's chip is designed precisely for this purpose.
Microsoft's plan targets Apple, which introduced Mac computer chips based on the Arm architecture approximately four years ago. Microsoft's decision to optimize Windows to suit the Arm architecture could threaten Intel's long-standing dominance in the PC market.
MediaTek and Microsoft declined to comment on this matter.
According to two informed sources, MediaTek's PC chip is planned to be launched later next year, following the expiry of Qualcomm's exclusive laptop chip supply agreement. The chip is based on Arm's ready-made design, which can significantly speed up development since it requires less design work using existing, tested chip components.
It is unclear whether Microsoft has approved MediaTek's PC chip for the Copilot+ Windows project.
Executives from Arm have stated that one of their customers completed the design of a chip using ready-made components in about nine months, while MediaTek's design is not yet finished. For experienced chip design companies, building and testing complex chips generally takes over a year, depending on their complexity.
In 2016, Microsoft chose Qualcomm to drive the transition of the Windows operating system to the Arm processor architecture, which has long powered smartphones and their small batteries. Last year, Reuters reported that Microsoft granted Qualcomm an exclusive agreement to develop Arm-based Windows-compatible chips until 2024.
