Windows Phone will soon also processors from chipmaker Marvell support. That has the chipbedrijf published. Until now, Windows Phones, in practice, only run on processors from Qualcomm.
The Windows Phone devices with Marvells Armada-soc’s will especially in China appear, says the chipmaker in the muffled manner in an interview with DailyTech. “If there’s Windows Phones in China appear, will probably be Windows Phones with Marvell in China appear”, says ceo Jack Kang.
Marvell lost out in the past year, its largest customer in the telecom market. BlackBerry-maker RIM chose for its new flagship models for socs of competitor Qualcomm. The MSM8255, which is also in the new Windows Phones, is the processor in the Bold 9900 and Torch 9860.
Although Windows Phone officially, all processors on ARM architecture supports, is that, in practice, not so; Microsoft only supplies all drivers for the QSD8250 and MSM8X55 of Qualcomm. The manufacturer that another chip will use, will need all drivers to write. Because that much more time and money, choosing manufacturers make to the socs from Qualcomm.
It seems that Microsoft has many more processors will support only the Qualcomms. There would also be Windows Phones appear with ST-Ericsson and Nvidia hardware. That other processors will be supported, probably has to do with the expiration of a deal with Qualcomm and the desire for cheap phones with Windows Phone. Qualcomms-soc’s are relatively expensive to purchase.