Software giant and former president of the Intel fanclub Microsoft has said that it has run Windows OS on a 1GHz ARM chip. Earlier this year Redmond announced that they would be working hard to introduce support for the increasingly popular ARM architecture.

While departing from the x86 obessessed world, it would give Microsoft access to machines running Qualcomm Snapdragons, Apple A5s and Samsung Hummingbirds. The cosy relationship between Microsoft and x86 architecture, which lead to the successful Wintel alliance, is starting to cost Microsoft.

X86 does not work well on mobile gadgets because of its high power draws and inefficient cooling.  However the demonstration of Windows running on an Arm chip at the  MIX Developer Conference in sunny Las Vegas,  shows that Microsoft is serious about getting its software onto as many devices as possible and it does not care if it upsets Intel in the process.