Microsoft shared more information about Arm support at its annual Build developer conference. Many tools, including Visual Studio, receive native support for this instruction set architecture. Also, the developer collaborated with Qualcomm on a Windows 11 mini PC to serve as an Arm64 devkit.
Project Volterra uses a Snapdragon soc and a neural processing unit (npu) that can be used to develop AI applications. This compact device features a stackable design that should allow for multiple system configurations.
It is unclear what kind of equipment was on board. A YouTube video reveals that there are three USB type-a ports and two type-c connections on board, as well as a mini displayport connector and an ethernet port. The enclosure is made from recycled ocean plastic.
The Volterra Project is not intended for consumers.
To fully exploit the potential of this hardware, Microsoft plans to provide a comprehensive toolchain for native Arm applications. The first previews, including Visual Studio 2022, will be available in the coming weeks. The full list can be found below:
- Visual Studio 2022 and VSCode
- Visual C++
- Modern .NET 6 and Java
- Classic .NET framework
- Windows Terminal
- WSL and WSA to run Linux and Android applications
Source: Microsoft
Source: Hardware Info
