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Think about it... what mainly run on Windows Server? Microsoft will be keen to compile IIS, .Net and SQL Server for the ARM platform. All Microsoft software will receive the ARM version pretty soon. If ARM is successful, expect other major player like IBM and Oracle to create ARM version of their Windows program too. I can't just think about any possible obstacle for Windows onto ARM in the server market. Its already standardized and much more tight than the desktop market.
About a x86 JIT translator... It can be done, but I'm not sure how much it will be efficient. Today's code compilers produce is highly optimized for the current generation processors execution pipeline.
Indeed, Microsoft building a Windows Server version for small ARM blades would be an interesting first step for them. Now that you have brought it up I can't help thinking that this would likely be the first sign we could see. Physicalization is a pretty big movement in the server market these days, and relies on small and cheap machines...
Food for thought. It certainly is more fun discussing Microsoft these days when they aren't quite the evil juggernaut they once were 




Member since:
2008-08-09
Worst case if they really can't make any other legacy-windows-strategy work: They have prepared the .NET ecosystem as a fallback, throw Singularity or something similar onto ARM and just make .NET the new primary development model. Sure that loses them the whole legacy audience, but they would have a compelling offering from the get-go anyway.
More likely, if ARM really takes over completely, just port NT (it is perfectly portable), JIT x86 into ARM code. Nothing performance-intensive would work, but most critical legacy stuff is already old and shouldn't require too much performance.