Approaching ARM on Windows

Startiel

Hi everyone,

With the release of the new Snapdragon X series (Plus & Elite) and the increasing number of supported software for Windows on ARM architecture, I was curious on how will NI approach this with their programs.

I personally think that Windows on ARM is the "messiah" of efficiency and performance and I guess it will be great for music production and DJing (of course it must be implemented in the right way).

Let me know what you think about it :)

BIF

My guess is the way to know your answer for Windows is just to take a look at how it runs on Mac. And that would go for anything, not just Native Instruments' products.

If it needs Rozetta on Mac, then it's just not ready to run natively on an ARM processor.

If it does NOT need Rozetta, that's not a guarantee that it would ever be made available for Windows Arm…but it is one hurdle passed, I would think. So the answer might be "maybe". Or "maybe in a million years", which is still better than a "no".

If there is no Mac version of that software, then there's no way to know.

I know that's not very helpful, but as I said, it's a guess.

MacJones

messiah? Please.

Lost of people are going to be into this going forward, for obvious reasons. the question now is how it's going to work in emulation mode, as holding my breath for a port might not be healthy. Considering the 40 TOPS kinda power we are looking at, emulation might be ok. But there's all the support apps that need to work right, and there are NO virtual midi drivers presently, although the BOME guy said it's in the works.

Enough people buy these, the money will make some changes. But these have a month to even hit the shelves. Maybe that will give us some time to see what what. Anyways, this ARM Windows may not even take off. Intel 2nm Arrow Lake node is do out at the end of the year, so you see….

MacJones

Geez, you can't even edit these posts LOL

Kubrak

My guess is, maybe in several years. But only if ARM makes its way to Win, which I doubt quite a lot.

x86 platform, at least AMD, has about the same power efficiency if it is produced on the same node like ARM… One may compare Zen4 CPUs and M2. They are on the same, or very similar production node…

ARM seems to be more power effective because it is usually made on the best node at hand, x86 is mostly one node behind.

Concerning Traktor. It runs just fine even on passively cooled 10th gen Intel i5 (4C/8T). I use 2in1 MS Surface Pro 7. No need for super trooper ARM.

Maciej Repetowski

Have a look at Copilot+ PC platform Microsoft just announced. This time Lenovo, Acer, Asus and Dell are also onboard. Satya knows what he is doing and what market he is aiming for (comparisons with MacBook Air were everywhere)

In a long term, Windows moving to ARM seems inevitable. And backwards compatibility achieved via emulation (or binary translation) of x86 code.

lord-carlos

Can't wait for 2033 to run Traktor 3.14 on ARM 😍 with daylight skin (For pro plus ultra™️ user)

MacJones

My post wan't clear, and I can't edit these so… ******.

Point is, I was talking about Copilot+ in my previous posts in this thread. I'm concerned about how emulation will work with this platform, with Kontakt and the support apps, as there's no 'native for Native', so to speak. Since TOPS40 is so powerful, and things like Kontakt aren't exactly going to overload the system, it just might work ok as an interim solution, or not… So many unknowns.

Maciej Repetowski

Win on ARM needs to gain traction. Without that, MS won’t be able to encourage or enforce on developers to provide dual binaries and everyone will sit on their hands, as they do now.

As for NI, judging from how long it took them to provide native apps for Apple Silicon (which nearly made me to abandon NI) - I would not keep my hopes high for anything less than 4-6 years from now (I’m being optimistic here).

Alex1974

Just received my ARM based Microsoft Surface laptop.

I installed Native Access successfully, however the Maschine software won't install.

Is it incompatible with ARM?

maniacintosh81

Official requirements for Maschine are Intel Core i5 or comparable or Apple M processor. So at least it is not supported by NI so far. It has to work in emulation on Windows ARM as there is no native ARM version for Windows until now.

It may cones someday but I am afraid for now you are out of luck.

Alex1974

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/160921#Comment_160921

Thanks for your answer.

Is there some way to download a standalone installer for Maschine 2, instead of installing it with Native Access? Perhaps that works better.
And how on earth can I contact NI support? I can't find any contact info or support form on the website.

chk071

It will all depend on the market share of Windows on ARM devices.

maniacintosh81

Native Access is usually the only way. There is a link to an older version (2.12.1) on Windows compatibility site:

https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000618297-Compatibility-of-Native-Instruments-Products-on-Windows

But you'll need Native Access for activation anyway.

Alex1974

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/160940#Comment_160940

Hey thanks, that actually worked. Maschine is running now.
Now I get stuck in activation because the license is already on my old laptop

Gonna try to figure out how to deactivate

Alex1974

Got one error during installation though. But it seems to run fine.