Microsoft Launches New ARM-to-x86 Compatibility Layer Prism

TapTechNews May 21st news, with Microsoft jointly推出 a series of Snapdragon processor ARM laptops with Qualcomm, the company also made another effort in software and launched a new ARM-to-x86 compatibility layer Prism, claiming that the translation efficiency is increased by 20%.

One of the important technologies for Apple's successful AppleSilicon transformation is the Rosetta2 translation layer, which can run most Intel Mac applications relatively seamlessly on AppleSilicon Macs without additional work from users or application developers.

In Windows 11, Microsoft also has a similar translation technology, and with the Windows 11 24H2 update, this technology got a new name - Prism.

Microsoft said that Prism is not just a new name for the old translation technology. After installing the Windows 11 24H2 update, the translated applications will run 10% to 20% faster on the same ARM hardware.

Microsoft also claims that Prism will further improve the compatibility of the translation layer with x86 applications, but did not elaborate on the specific improvements made.

TapTechNews noticed that Microsoft's official blog stated that nearly 90% of the total time users spend in applications can use the native ARM version, and the PC simulation application with Snapdragon XElite is more than twice as fast as the previous-generation Snapdragon 8cx Gen3 device running Windows 11 22H2 (Geekbench 5 test).

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