They wouldn't be developing the driver, just the code that interfaces between the Windows interface and the Broadcom driverAnd anyway, expecting RPL to develop the videocore windows driver is like expecting the likes of MSI, ASUS, Paylit, etc. to develop the drivers for the NVIDIA or AMD chips on their graphics cards.
But isn't that exactly what most drivers do? Accept requests/calls in whatever API the OS demands, translates those, and passes them onto the hardware?
Drivers also often (always?) need to be in the kernel space and I can't see the low level videocore being OS agnostic because of that.
, just as I assume it was RPL did from the Linux interface to that driver.
Don't assume. Assumptions are often wrong.
As hippy says, hopefully Microsoft and RPL will just get together one day and do it. As well as getting the Pi500 into more schools, it would also give the CM5 a shot at a well known Japanese company who use huge numbers of Windows Intel SBCs inside their products. And lots of other applications as well that are wedded to Embedded Windows but don't care what the processor itself is.
The application might not care but you can bet the company will. There will be significant cost in retraining all the existing expertise and redesigning products. And, if standards compliance is required re-certification (of people, hardware, and software).
Let's say that MS, RPL, and Broadcom get together and produce the necessary drivers for Windows on ARM on Pi. That might help schools if licenses remain free but it would also require that any particular school is not tied in to a long term supply and support contract from the likes of Dell.*
And things like waving some of the hardware requirements for Windows (or adding a TPM v2 module to the Pi) would also be necessary.
The key issue for me though is not whether an official build will ever exist but when it does what the cost of a license will be. Not to large Japanese corporations but to small businesses and individuals. A Win11 Home license is currently retailing for £119.99.** That's more than the cost of a Pi to run it on (or a cheap, low power intel box for that matter).
That means either bundling Windows with every new Pi (which is the current desktop/laptop way of doing it) which I'd expect to increase the buy in price or a major drop in retail pricing across the board for a Windows license (the x86 crowd would kick off otherwise).
This is all largely meaningless speculation anyway. No doubt those who know will be under NDA and the rest of us are just guessing.
We'll have to wait and see though I wonder if a profit motivated board post IPO will be pushing for the adoption of Windows.
*: Hmm, maybe get Dell, Lenovo, et al to put pressure on MS?
**: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/d/windo ... 7gmgf0krt0
Statistics: Posted by thagrol — Sun Nov 24, 2024 5:33 pm