Microsoft Surface Studio Packs A Hidden ARM Processor

The Microsoft Surface Studio is a very powerful all-in-one Windows PC that’s made by Redmond itself. It has now started sending out units to pre-order customers which means that it was only a matter of time before the folks over at iFixit did a teardown to see what’s inside. They have found something interesting. Apparently, the Microsoft Surface Studio packs a hidden ARM processor inside.

A hidden ARM processor that the company didn’t talk about when it announced this device was the interesting discovery. This Atmel ATSAMS70N21 32-bit ARM Cortex-M7 process is actually used to aid in powering the Surface Studio’s PixelSense display. iFixit notes that “here’s way more silicon hiding in this unit than in the base.”

iFixit has awarded Microsoft’s first all-in-one PC with a repairability score of 5 out of 10. It’s not that easy to repair even though the base can be easily opened and there are some modular components like the SATA hard drive and M.2 SSD. The display can be replaced easily as well.

However, some of the most important components are not easily replaceable. The CPU, GPU, and RAM are all soldered to the motherboard so they can’t be swapped out easily. That was to be expected from an all-in-one as slim as the Surface Studio.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Computers
Tags: Microsoft, Surface Studio