Intel foresees Windows 8 split in two

Intel's chief financial officer Stacy Smith said on Wednesday that the company does not fear Windows 8 on the ARM architecture and that it will win its fair share of the tablet business.

Speaking at the Citi Global Technology Conference, Smith was asked about how Microsoft's Windows 8 will affect the company. Microsoft has already revealed that Windows 8 will run on the ARM architecture, which is used by mobile devices.

Smith responded by splitting Windows 8 into two parts — the legacy PC version that plays to Wintel — and the one venturing onto mobile devices. "You have to separate out Windows 8 into its two components," he said. "There's a Windows 8 that's going to be for PCs and for ultrabooks. That's where legacy applications are enabled. You are not going to see ARM in that segment of the marketplace and that's where our historical strength of just driving form factors, driving silicon innovation, driving more performance and better features I think is going to be."

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Intel: We'll win our fair share vs. ARM even with Windows 8 on ZDNet.com.