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Old 12-12-2012, 02:28 PM
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naskies (Dave)
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Intel Architecture tablets have already been around for a long time, and Microsoft has already tried it with their (unsuccessful) "Tablet PC" platform a few years back.

One of the big challenges with x86/x64 is that their instruction set isn't very power efficient when you want performance (lots of power hungry instruction set decoders, branch predictors, instruction re-writers, etc are needed).

The other problem is that user interfaces designed for users who are sitting at a desk with a keyboard and mouse tend to be horrible for people who are mobile and interacting with a touch screen. Anyone who's used the old Windows CE based smart phones can appreciate how dramatic a difference the iPhone's interface was.

That said, tablets are now "proven" mainstream technology so perhaps business users will be able to purchase x64 tablets with less justification than in the past.
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