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Why do we not see Windows for the Raspberry Pi? Well it may have been due to licensing.

cstanton

Beyond the IoT Core version, perhaps it has to do with an exclusivity deal with Microsoft and Qualcomm since the Raspberry Pi runs an Arm-based processor.

This isn't explicitly a new article, it was published in 2021, but since there's no explicit date on when that deal will or has, or if it'll expire, perhaps we should now start seeing the fruits of that deal expiring.

An excerpt from the article:

"Last week, we reported that MediaTek is planning to build a chipset for Windows on ARM. As it turns out, the Windows on ARM chipset space could be even hotter than that, because there's a reason that we've only seen Qualcomm SoCs in ARM PCs so far. Qualcomm actually has an exclusivity deal with Microsoft for Windows on ARM, and speaking with people familiar with it, we've learned that the deal is set to expire soon.

Other than the fact that Microsoft has publicly said that anyone who wants to can build a Windows on ARM chip, this really shouldn't come as a surprise. Qualcomm didn't just start building PC chips hoping that Microsoft would compile Windows to support it. No, these two companies worked together to make it happen. Because of that, Qualcomm gets to enjoy a bit of exclusivity.

One thing I wasn't able to learn is when the deal will expire, only that it's the thing holding back other chip vendors from competing in the space. It's possible that Samsung might want to throw its hat into the ring with its Exynos processors too, especially given its recent partnership with AMD for graphics power. This is also presumably why Apple Silicon Macs aren't officially supported for running Windows 11, so hopefully that will change as well."

Anecdotes from Reddit claim that the deal will be ending sometime in 2024, and Arm CEO has allegedly confirmed it will be by the start of 2025, which explains for the further development by AMD and NVIDIA working on their own Arm chips for Windows.

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  • I think becase Raspberry Pi foundation is not interesting in that support and do not want to pay for it any single $. But some other venders are interested. For example, NXP shown running Windows 10 on their ARM i.MX 8 MPU at last Embedded World and stated that they support it and their procesors (which performance is not very far from performance of RPI) handles Windows well. They have BSP and SDK for generating ACPI table and allows developers to customize emulated BIOS for running Windows and allowing embedded developers for customizing it.

    See Micrsoft's video which explain what changed from Windows 10 IoT Core (which run on RPI also) to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise and also show some captures from Windows 10 desktop running on i.MX.

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  • I think becase Raspberry Pi foundation is not interesting in that support and do not want to pay for it any single $. But some other venders are interested. For example, NXP shown running Windows 10 on their ARM i.MX 8 MPU at last Embedded World and stated that they support it and their procesors (which performance is not very far from performance of RPI) handles Windows well. They have BSP and SDK for generating ACPI table and allows developers to customize emulated BIOS for running Windows and allowing embedded developers for customizing it.

    See Micrsoft's video which explain what changed from Windows 10 IoT Core (which run on RPI also) to Windows 10 IoT Enterprise and also show some captures from Windows 10 desktop running on i.MX.

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