Microsoft created the mini Surface dev box that Qualcomm couldn’t

Microsoft has unveiled the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a miniature PC powered by Nvidia's Arm-based RTX Spark chips designed for developers. It serves as a direct replacement for Qualcomm's canceled Snapdragon Dev Kit, optimized for local AI workloads.

Microsoft only just announced a new Surface Laptop Ultra at the weekend, and it’s now revealing a miniature Surface PC aimed at developers. The new Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is powered by Nvidia’s new Arm-based RTX Spark chips, just like the Surface Laptop Ultra, and is optimized for sustained workloads and local AI tasks.

Microsoft created the mini Surface dev box that Qualcomm couldn’t

The Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is designed for local-first AI development.

The Surface RTX Spark Dev Box looks a little like the top of an Xbox Series X console, with an aluminum chassis that also doubles as a heatsink. It has a 100-watt thermal envelope, slightly more than the 45-watt-to-80-watt thermal envelopes for Nvidia’s RTX Spark laptops. This miniature Surface PC also has 128GB of unified memory, making it capable of running up to 120 billion parameter models locally.

Microsoft is preconfiguring the RTX Spark Dev Box with apps like Visual Studio Code, GitHub Copilot, and other tools. “Surface RTX Spark Dev Box ships with Windows 11 Pro pre-configured for developers at the image level,” explains Andrew Hill, corporate vice president of Surface. “The setup keeps developers in their workflow: dark theme, taskbar simplified for development, Widgets removed, Do Not Disturb on. Developer Mode is enabled. PowerShell 7 is the default shell.”

The RTX Spark Dev Box joins similar options from other OEMs that are embracing Nvidia’s new RTX Spark chips for miniature PCs. It’s also a direct replacement for Qualcomm’s canceled Snapdragon Dev Kit, the miniature Windows on Arm PC that was originally supposed to ship two years ago. The Dev Kit was supposed to help developers port their apps to Windows on Arm, but Qualcomm faced some complications with hardware quality.

While we don’t have full specifications or pricing, the RTX Spark Dev Box will be available later this year in the US from Microsoft’s online store.

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