The Future of Mobile Computing

Have you ever wondered why you can't use the desktop versions of programs like Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop on your phone? The issue performance like it used to be; SOCs such as Samsung's Exynos 8890 is faster than Intel's i3 6100, a high-end desktop CPU. Their biggest obstacle is currently the differences in architecture between the two processors.

Most desktops, laptops, and even servers use processors built on the x86 or x86-64 architecture, because of this most applications are only designed to be used on these architectures. When Apple introduced the iPhone to the world, they also introduced the ARM architecture to many consumers. The ARM architecture is well suited to products that require low heat, power, and production cost, which is why it's used over other options.

We currently have many applications made for desktop architectures that are incompatible with mobile SOCs. This includes those applications mentioned at the start of this article, but it looks like Microsoft is looking to remedy that.

Last December Microsoft revealed a new technology allowing Snapdragon ARM processors to run x86 applications. While it doesn't work for x86-64 processors, it can run a full version of Windows 10 along with any applications that would regularly work on it.

While these processors aren't fast enough to run applications as fast as a desktop would, it is still a huge step in the right direction. It's also limited to older 32-bit x86 programs, although that isn't too big of a deal considering the great compatibility it has with applications.

Windows 10 running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor