Why do Intel and AMD's new generation processors only support Win10?

When the Skylake Core processor was released, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would be the only operating system supported by the processor. This radical statement angered many Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users, who believed that Microsoft was forcing them to use Windows 10. Therefore, Microsoft quickly stated that the old systems would also be supported by these processors until the end of their life cycle.

Marco Chiappetta, editor-in-chief of Hot Hardware, published an article about the fact that both Intel and AMD's next-generation processors only support Windows 10. The article explains from a technical perspective why the new processors are "new and old" to the Windows system.

The article states that since Kaby Lake processors and Zen processors belong to the same X86 architecture, in fact, after using these hardware, older Windows systems can still be installed, and geeks can also install Linux systems or MacOS systems. These systems can run on hardware platforms equipped with new processors.

The article specifically emphasizes the difference between "support" and "compatibility." That is, although new processors are compatible with older versions of Windows, most of the new technologies used on these processors will no longer support operating systems prior to Windows 10.

For example, Intel's new Speed ​​Shift technology on Kaby Lake can change power performance faster, and to enable this feature, the hardware needs to be hooked to the system level. Intel evaluates the responsiveness and performance of this technology through the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Another example is Intel's Turbo Boost technology. Before the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, a driver and a secondary tool were required to enable this technology, but after the Anniversary Update, the driver and secondary tool are no longer needed.

Zen processors are more complex than Kaby Lake processors because they use a fine-grained clock gating with multi-level regions. In order to maximize the performance of this technology, Microsoft had to adjust the kernel of the Windows system. In order to be compatible with AMD processors with AMD's "Bulldozer" core, Microsoft once made a major update to Windows 7.

In other words, Microsoft, Intel and AMD will eventually work together for the compatibility of Windows 10 system and processors on new technologies. The new Windows 10 system will be fully compatible with the new processor without the need for drivers. If this project goes smoothly, the combination of software and hardware will be closer, and the performance of both will be improved. However, whether consumers will be satisfied and whether Microsoft, Intel and AMD will be labeled as "monopolists" still needs time, market and word of mouth to verify.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.