The revelation at an investors meeting that four different versions of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system are being planned for ARM-based mobile processors has been met with a fierce rebuttal from the Redmond camp. It is understood that Renee James, Intel's senior vice president, made the remark when highlighting the strengths of the Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) platform, which runs the same Windows code-base across its various families of processors. James noted that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) would have to develop "numerous forks" in Windows 8 in order to support the various unique implementations of ARM's SoC (System-on-a-chip).

Firing back, Microsoft wrote in a prepared statement that "Intel's statements during [Tuesday's] Intel Investor Meeting about Microsoft's plans for the next version of Windows were factually inaccurate and unfortunately misleading." It added: "From the first demonstrations of Windows on SoC [system-on-a-chip], we have been clear about our goals and have emphasized that we are at the technology demonstration stage. As such, we have no further details or information at this time." Microsoft has not yet stated a release date for Windows 8, though speculation has pegged it at between the end of 2011 and the middle of 2012.

For more:
- check out this article at InformationWeek
- check out this article at CNET News

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