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Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Zen processors to only support Windows 10 and Unix
News hits the web on multiple websites today that it seems likely that both AMD ZEN and Intel's Kaby lake processors are to only support Windows 10 and Unix compatible operating systems. That would be bad news for the guys still on Windows 7 looking forward to an upgrade.
The news hits the web today through PC Gamer. Microsoft already announced this news earlier this year, but we didn't know about ZEN on this one. It makes sense though but yes, Microsoft is planning to only support the new processors on Windows 10 (so this is not an AMD or Intel thing). Basically Microsoft will not support the new processors on older operating systems. While I do believe the standard instruction sets should be supported, the niche multi-media functions etc thus should not be. So it remains to be seen how compatible these processors are going to be.
"Windows 10 will be the only supported Windows platform on Intel's upcoming 'Kaby Lake' silicon, Qualcomm's upcoming '8996' silicon, and AMD's upcoming 'Bristol Ridge' silicon," Microsoft stated in a blog post earlier this year.
"As new silicon generations are introduced, they will require the latest Windows platform at that time for support,” a Microsoft spokeswoman stated. "This enables us to focus on deep integration between Windows and the silicon, while maintaining maximum reliability and compatibility with previous generations of platform and silicon."
So, what happens if you install a Kaby Lake processor in a desktop PC running Windows 7? Good question—nobody knows outside of Microsoft and Intel, and until the CPUs are out in the wild, no one will have the opportunity to try it out. One unnamed source told PCWorld that without support and security updates, his guess is that the experience would be "a bit glitchy." Another surmised that certain apps trying to use features built into the chips could crash. Even if you can get the OS installed, it would likely be a sub-optimal experience at best.
There's not a whole lot Intel and AMD are saying about this. Both chipmakers provided canned responses when asked for thoughts on the subject, with Intel confirming it has no plans on updating Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 drivers for Kaby Lake "per Microsoft's support policy change."
Obviously everything not Microsoft will support the processors like *nix distributions such as ChromeOS, SteamOS, and OS X.
TDurden
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#5329639 Posted on: 09/02/2016 10:10 AM
I am sure enthusiasts will find a way to make it work if they want to use W7. Windows 7 refused to install on Skylake already, showing nonsense error about optical drives while in reality it requires a simple USB 3.0 drive integration into installation media..
Some features like new instructions will probably be not supported.
AFAIK Windows 10 is already the only Windows version that support Intel Speed Shift debuted in Skylake CPUs.
I am sure enthusiasts will find a way to make it work if they want to use W7. Windows 7 refused to install on Skylake already, showing nonsense error about optical drives while in reality it requires a simple USB 3.0 drive integration into installation media..
Some features like new instructions will probably be not supported.
AFAIK Windows 10 is already the only Windows version that support Intel Speed Shift debuted in Skylake CPUs.
rl66
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#5329643 Posted on: 09/02/2016 10:17 AM
with change in instruction set supported and removal of old one so the OS think it is not a CPU made for him...
Remember the drama when nearly all OS were needing 100% SSE to work and AMD Athlon have only partial??? now no one complain neither on M$ Windows or Linux. (more recentely with Pentium Anniversary despite patched on windows just after)
HOW does a CPU NOT support an older operating system, it just carries out a bunch of instructions?
with change in instruction set supported and removal of old one so the OS think it is not a CPU made for him...
Remember the drama when nearly all OS were needing 100% SSE to work and AMD Athlon have only partial??? now no one complain neither on M$ Windows or Linux. (more recentely with Pentium Anniversary despite patched on windows just after)
Fender178
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#5329647 Posted on: 09/02/2016 10:28 AM
To me what it boils down to is not just CPU compatibility and optimization with older OSes but down to Motherboard manufactures creating drivers for the old Oses like Windows 7. There has to be a cut off point somewhere. I think when ever users decide to upgrade their cpus to either a Kirby-Lake cpu or a Zen cpu they may want Windows 10 because there is nothing wrong with it after certain tweaks are applied.
To me what it boils down to is not just CPU compatibility and optimization with older OSes but down to Motherboard manufactures creating drivers for the old Oses like Windows 7. There has to be a cut off point somewhere. I think when ever users decide to upgrade their cpus to either a Kirby-Lake cpu or a Zen cpu they may want Windows 10 because there is nothing wrong with it after certain tweaks are applied.
Horus-Anhur
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#5329649 Posted on: 09/02/2016 10:36 AM
I could understand if we were talking about old OSes not being supported by Zen and Kaby Lake, like Windows 98 or XP.
But one would expect support for recent OS like Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. These OS are still being used by millions of people, especially Windows 7.
How can it be that the only supported OS is only one year old?
This is clearly a scheme from Microsoft to force users to upgrade to Windows 10. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some kind of deal made under the table, where MS was paying AMD and Intel to end support for OS that are not Windows 10.
I could understand if we were talking about old OSes not being supported by Zen and Kaby Lake, like Windows 98 or XP.
But one would expect support for recent OS like Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. These OS are still being used by millions of people, especially Windows 7.
How can it be that the only supported OS is only one year old?
This is clearly a scheme from Microsoft to force users to upgrade to Windows 10. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some kind of deal made under the table, where MS was paying AMD and Intel to end support for OS that are not Windows 10.
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The issue is not really with the CPU vendors, but with the OS support for the new and upcoming hardware features and extensions (power management, new instruction sets, IGP, etc.), i.e. things not concerning baseline capabilities. As long a CPU architecture is labeled "x86-compatible", it can boot and run any software from the last 30 years. As the CPUs become more like SoC, with a lot of closely integrated functionalities, sharing common resources (memory, caches, machine states), the older operating systems will not be worth the investment to bring all those "peripheral" goodies to them. For the most, it will simply be impossible.
Windows XP will run fine on Zen and KL, just with most of the advanced features sitting idle and unused. Only benefiting from whatever incremental improvements are made to the baseline ISA (memory, cache, branch prediction and op's execution).