Windows Dev Kit 2023

Windows Dev Kit 2023. © Microsoft.

Revealed under the name Project Volterra during the Build conference last May, the mini ARM PC for developers is now available in several countries, including Canada. Priced at 800 CAD (600 USD) in the Microsoft Store, the device that brings to mind a Mac Mini is now officially called Windows Dev Kit 2023. Developed in partnership with Qualcomm, it features a Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 SoC, a neural processing unit (NPU), 32GB of RAM and 512GB of NVMe storage. On the port side, there are two USB-C 3.2 Gen 2, three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, an Ethernet and a Mini DisplayPort. On the software side, the PC comes with the ARM version of Visual Studio 2022, .NET 7, which offers improved performance on ARM, as well as “previews” of the ARM versions of Visual C++ and the Windows App SDK.

Microsoft goes on to say that other applications, tools, frameworks and packages are being ported to natively target Windows on ARM. The company is betting on this powerful but affordable Dev Kit to prompt the development of a fair number of applications that would run natively on ARM-powered laptops.

⇨ The Verge, Tom Warren, “Microsoft’s new $599 Mac Mini-like PC is designed to improve Windows on Arm.”

⇨ Ars Technica, Andrew Cunningham, “Microsoft’s ‘Project Volterra’ becomes an Arm-powered mini PC with 32GB of RAM.”

2022-10-24