Microsoft is working on a version of its software for servers that run on ARM chips in a move that might miff its ally Intel.

The world’s largest software maker has a test version of Windows Server that is already running on ARM-based servers. Redmond hasn’t yet decided whether to make the software commercially available.  Right now, it only offers a server operating system for use on Intel’s X86 processors. Microsoft is probably concerned that a version of Windows running on ARM chips for tablet computers failed after the devices did not catch on with the great unwashed.

An ARM-based version of Windows Server may help increase efforts by computer manufacturers to bring ARM’s technology into the mainstream. Intel has 98 percent of the market for processors used in servers that run on personal-computer chips.

HP said that ARM-based chips have a place in servers, where they can compete with Intel’s products on power savings and price. It has been offering a version of its Moonshot server line that runs on ARM-based processors from Applied Micro Circuits.