Microsoft patent takes the Transformer Prime one step further

Via Slash Gear

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Asus’ Transformer (and Transformer Prime) seems to have resonated well with consumers, and now Microsoft may be looking to create a similar concept in the future. A new patent reveals Microsoft nurturing an idea that could see a tablet turning into a full fledged laptop or desktop PC, complete with not one but two separate processors.

How is that any different from the Transformer Prime, you ask? Unwired View reports that Microsoft would be including a processor not only in the tablet itself, but also the keyboard base unit. The processor in the tablet would be optimized for low-power, pointing towards an ARM chip of some kind, while the processor in the keyboard base unit would be focused more on performance. That could mean either a speedier ARM chip, or even an ULV Intel chip.

Right now with the Transformer Prime, you hold the same amount of processing power whether or not you’re docked with the keyboard, which only provides additional power. Microsoft’s vision would see different performance scenarios depending on your mobility requirements, which seems much more appealing.

Not only that, the operating system would adapt to the change. Microsoft lay out in their patent that the device would switch between a “resource-conserving computing environment” when in tablet mode, and a “resource-intensive computing environment” when in laptop mode. This is idle speculation, but that sounds ideal for Windows 8, switching to the Metro interface when in tablet mode, and back to the traditional desktop when in laptop mode.