If Microsoft wants to make its own chips for future Windows 12 computers, I say we let it. It’s a smart move to counter Apple.
My good colleague John Loeffler recently discussed the fact that Microsoft – threatened, evidently, by Apple’s huge success with its M-series chips – reportedly wants to make its own chips for future Windows 12 PCs.
John didn’t like that idea one bit, but I’m choosing to be a bit more optimistic about Microsoft’s plans – even though the Redmond tech giant has stumbled majorly in the past.
Yes, I know the bespoke SQ1 processor powering the Surface Pro X was a hot piece of garbage. But not everyone can get it right the first time; Apple knocked it out of the park with the M1 MacBook Air back in 2020, but that’s a company that has built an empire based on watching patiently to see what everyone else does, then doing the same thing but slightly better.
Microsoft, on the other hand, is a company willing to fail until it gets it right. I mean, just look at Windows, arguably the tech giant’s greatest success. We all love Windows 10, but there sure were a lot of hiccups along the way. Vista, 7, and 8 were all (mostly) functional OSes, but who among us didn’t wish for a return to Windows XP?
Sure, Microsoft can sometimes go backward rather than forward – though I’m hoping that won’t be the case with Windows 12 – but the truth is that when it comes to custom-designed silicon, the only way to can go is up.SQ3-ky clean
At the end of last year, we reviewed the Surface Pro 9 5G, a version of Microsoft’s latest professional-grade Windows tablet equipped with the third-generation SQ3 chip as opposed to the Intel processors found in the standard iteration. And it was much better!
The SQ3 – like its predecessors – is an ARM-based chip, which had plenty of advantages but plenty of drawbacks too.
