ARM CEO gifts Nvidia CEO Huang with historic Windows-ARM device

At Arm's Computex press conference, amidst a host of AI-related topics, the chip developer had a little surprise in store at the end. Arm CEO Rene Haas invited Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang onto the stage and presented him with a Surface RT.

The Surface RT was something special at the time, as the Windows device featured an ARM chip developed by Nvidia (Tegra 3). It was unveiled by Rene Haas, who was then working for Nvidia. The promise in 2012: a fanless design and ten hours of battery life thanks to an energy-efficient platform.

The Surface RT arrived at a time when Microsoft had largely abandoned the original Surface concept, a rather large table with a touchscreen and sensors for its surface. Instead, the brand name was established for tablets and notebooks.

Unusual hardware in the x86 era

Back then, the device was something special. Much like the Windows Phone predecessors as MP3 players (Zune), it was extremely difficult to install apps or programs. At the time, the software infrastructure was nowhere near as advanced. In short, the Surface RT was an exciting device to give to relatives or acquaintances who weren’t very tech-savvy. After all, you couldn’t really go wrong with it, mess up the settings, or even catch malware.

However, due to these limitations, the Surface RT and Windows RT were also a flop, especially since the devices weren’t particularly fast. Our review of the Surface RT from 2012 was also mixed. Microsoft’s first attempt failed, and it took several more attempts to help ARM gain some traction. After all, Windows was already working in the embedded systems sector.

Ultimately, Microsoft, ARM and Nvidia laid the groundwork for establishing ARM in the Windows world. As Jensen Huang stated at the ARM keynote, the new RTX Spark platform will continue to run on Windows.