Google has released a native version of Chrome for “ARM64” devices, optimizing the latest “AI PC” solutions such as Snapdragon X.
Google Decides To Make ARM64 Chrome Experience On Windows A Delight Through Utilizing The Onboard MFTs
Well, it looks like Google has released a dedicated version of Chrome for ARM devices, with the sole aim of improving user experiences on the platform.
WindowsReport has disclosed that with the new Chrome version, Google has decided to leverage MFTs (Media Foundation Transforms) on ARM64 products to enable hardware-accelerated video encoding. This would allow Chrome to rely less on ARM CPUs, ultimately freeing them for other tasks. Here’s how Chromium, the open-source project, describes the change in its commit request:
Prior CLs have fixed most of the issues observed on Qualcomm hardware. The encoding rate control tests still fail on the current lab TryBot devices due to the actual bitrate being further off than the allowed tolerance. These failures are not observed on newer hardware (when run locally).
– via Chromium
With the change, Chrome on ARM is expected to witness faster encoding times, which means that users will wait less for video recording and editing times within Chrome. The utilization of MFTs will also make multitasking much more effective, and less dependence on the CPU will also result in improved battery life. It is reported that the change will initially debut with the Canary version of Chrome, and overall, it’s certainly a great addition since it will cater to the AI PC hype, considering how Google’s Chrome is an integral part of computing.
It would be much better if we knew how the changes mentioned contributed to real-time processing speeds, but for now, we’ll have to wait for a credible test to conclude.
News Source: Windows Report