Bitwig on ARM processors?

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Hey devs, I'm wondering how much feasible it would be to port Bitwig's codebase to ARM64 for running on upcoming ARM Windows laptops? (such as Surface Pro X). Just out of curiosity...

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Interested to see the answer

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Might want to contact them directly. They don't often post here.

http://www.bitwig.com/en/support/tech-support.html
-JH

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dodmcdund wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2019 5:46 am Hey devs, I'm wondering how much feasible it would be to port Bitwig's codebase to ARM64 for running on upcoming ARM Windows laptops? (such as Surface Pro X). Just out of curiosity...
There's already Windows tablets / laptops on ARM processors, so - as long as its normal version of Windows - I don't think it matters what silicone is inside...

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Windows-o ... 796.0.html
Music tech enthusiast
DAW, VST & hardware hoarder
My "music": https://soundcloud.com/antic604

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what matters is instructions that processor supports, if Bitwig relies on some that aren't available on ARM processors, then I doubt they would even bother.

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The ARM emulation on Windows doesn't support 64 bit applications. I think this may mean bitwig is out of the question, not sure though.

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The Windows 10 ARM-based PCs FAQ:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... m-based-pc
states:

"- Drivers for hardware, games and apps will only work if they're designed for a Windows 10 ARM-based PC.

- 64-bit (x64) apps won’t work. You'll need 64-bit (ARM64) apps, 32-bit (ARM32) apps, or 32-bit (x86) apps. You can usually find 32-bit (x86) versions of apps, but some app developers only offer 64-bit (x64) apps."

Current Bitwig code is 64bit (x64), so that seems to imply it will not run on Windows on ARM. Moreover, drivers for audio interfaces etc would also need to be made available for ARM.

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Support came back with the following


it's a topic that we have been discussing, but there's no actual roadmap for it.
Sorry that I can't give you any more reliable information on it at this point..!


At least they are thinking about but can't imagine it is too high on the priority list for now.

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Interesting! Yeah it's probably a bit ahead of time as soundcards wouldn't work on ARM for now...

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ARM is a weird prospect; it's the majority upon mobile devices, yet server and workstation it's not. Thus, high-powered ARM offerings are few by comparison to x86.
Bitwig is not a mobile app, so until the market shifts in a big way toward ARM for workstation/server, I don't think the prospect looks good.

That said, I'm quite fond of ARM SoCs like Raspberry Pi. I'd love to run rich audio apps on my Pi for various projects. Though, the power isn't there for these devices yet. Bitwig would seize up even if it could run on it.
For instance, I have a MOD DUO, which is an ARM based guitar effects pedal. It's an incredible product and I love it. It's highly optimized, yet still, it's ARM proc (2017 gen, sorry I don't have the model offhand) is quite underpowered for what I'd like to do--which, granted is perhaps a bit much.

It's about adoption though. Linus Torvalds had some interesting things to say about ARM lately: https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-linu ... rocessors/

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Actually I would find as interesting to see some preparations for OpenPower or RISC-V processor as are both open source ISA, with both some open source processors already released.

You can even find Power based workstations https://raptorcs.com/

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I'm pretty sure some of the most performant code for BWS is written in ASM and as such is highly platform-dependent, so I don't think this will be a possibility with a high likelyhood in the (near) future, especially considering ARM's diversity of architecture/hardware.
((( ~ )))

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wavedigit wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 11:02 pm I'm pretty sure some of the most performant code for BWS is written in ASM and as such is highly platform-dependent, so I don't think this will be a possibility with a high likelyhood in the (near) future, especially considering ARM's diversity of architecture/hardware.
I doubt it, they said that the Grid devices compile for each CPU when they are installed on.

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pc999 wrote: Sun Oct 13, 2019 3:51 pm
wavedigit wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 11:02 pm I'm pretty sure some of the most performant code for BWS is written in ASM and as such is highly platform-dependent, so I don't think this will be a possibility with a high likelyhood in the (near) future, especially considering ARM's diversity of architecture/hardware.
I doubt it, they said that the Grid devices compile for each CPU when they are installed on.
I might be wrong but there's a difference between JIT compiling for a (subset) of supported instructions for either specific Intel or AMD 64-bit CPUs and compiling for an entirely different architecture.
((( ~ )))

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wavedigit wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 10:11 am
I might be wrong but there's a difference between JIT compiling for a (subset) of supported instructions for either specific Intel or AMD 64-bit CPUs and compiling for an entirely different architecture.
That I dont know.

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