ARM today has made the announcement many have been waiting for, the availability of their Quad-core A15 CPUs based on the 28nm die process. The Cortex-A15 hard macro processors are floating-point monsters, running at 2GHz and cranking out 20,000 DMIPS while sipping electricity at the same rate as the dual-core Cortex-A9s.

A large part of that efficiency gain comes from the die shrink between the Cortex-A9 and the Cortex-A15, the A9 was built on a 40nm process, the same as every other mobile CPU sold last year, from the iPhone 4S to the Droid Incredible 2.

The shift to a 28nm process in the A15 takes advantage of one of the few "free lunch" aspects of physics shrinking the transistors means less electricity is lost as heat, so you clock cycles get faster and more efficient, which is win-win for end users. Of course die shrinks are incredibly hard engineering feats, so that "free lunch" is awfully expensive to "cater".

Windows 8 is shaping up to be the best OS Microsoft has had in years, but limitations around ARM-based tablets and concerns over x86-based model pricing could sour the platform launch later this year. Microsoft has mandated that ARM Windows 8 machines expected to be the bulk of low-cost Windows 8 tablets must have their Secure Boot system locked down, ComputerWorld reports or in order words users must not be allowed to load non-Windows platforms onto ARM hardware.

According to a document titled Windows Hardware Certification Requirements, which Microsoft released last month, the company confirms that it is up to manufacturers as to whether Secure Boot is locked down or not. For x86-powered PCs, notebooks and tablets, OEMs are free to decide which way to leave the settings

Multiple sources have reported seeing impressive demos of Windows 8 running on high-profile devices from key manufacturers already and the word is developers are expected to receive a stable build of Windows 8 suitable for ARM architecture come February.

"In October of last year, it [Windows 8 on ARM] scared the industry because it was unstable. But what we are seeing now is quite stable," one industry insider told the team at CNET. "We have not heard this directly from Microsoft, but we have heard this from the hardware partners that [Microsoft] is working with. We've been promised something in the February time frame."

There are a number of key reasons why bringing Windows 8 to ARM is so significant. For one, Windows 8 using ARM architecture would be far less costly than with an Intel equivalent. An Intel-based Windows 8 device showcased at CES this year, would have been considerably cheaper as a cosmetically identical ARM-based unit.