Microsoft’s New Windows Dev Kit 2023 ‘Project Volterra’ Now Available for Developers

Project Volterra

Microsoft has launched Windows Dev Kit 2023 (codenamed “Project Volterra”), a new Snapdragon-powered desktop PC designed for data scientists and developers. The device was first unveiled at Build 2022, and it features a powerful neural processing unit (NPU) that lets developers build and test ARM native Windows applications.

“The Windows Dev Kit 2023 is powered by the Snapdragon® 8cx Gen 3 compute platform, and sports 32 GB RAM and 512 GB fast storage, along with multiple ports: built-in Wi-Fi 6, physical ethernet, 3x USB-A and 2x USB-C, a mini-display port for easy and flexible connectivity to your devices, displays and networks,” the company explained.

Microsoft’s New Windows Dev Kit 2023 'Project Volterra' Now Available for Developers

Along with Project Volterra, Microsoft has also released a fully Arm64-compatible developer toolchain for Windows in public preview. This includes popular apps such as Visual Studio 17.4, Windows App SDK with native Arm support, .NET 7, VC++ Runtime, Arm64EC, and Azure VMs. Microsoft notes that .NET Framework 4.8.1 is available by default with Windows 11 version 22H2 launched last week.

Microsoft released a preview of Visual Studio 2022 for Windows back in June. It’s the first version of Visual Studio that runs natively on Arm devices running Windows 11. This build supports workloads for creating desktop apps with C++ and C#, Windows SDK and Windows App SDK, Node.js, UWP, and Web or game development.

Additionally, .NET 7 optimizes performance to target server throughput and latency on ARM devices. This release enables developers to run their existing x64 and x86 apps and tools on the Windows Dev Kit. Visual Studio 2022 17.4 and .NET 7 will hit general availability in the next few weeks, and support for additional workloads to follow later this year.

Microsoft’s New Windows Dev Kit 2023 'Project Volterra' Now Available for Developers

Microsoft highlights that developers can now use Azure VMs with the Ampere Altra Arm-based processor to run workloads and execute and test builds. The new Azure VMs support Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise Insider builds and various Linux distributions.

Windows Dev Kit 2023 (aka Project Volterra) is available for $599 in 8 countries

Project Volterra provides native support for Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Edge, OneDrive Sync, and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE). It also supports various third-party productivity, security, and management, including Adobe Photoshop, Zoom, HP Smart Universal Print Driver, Sophos Intercept X, NetWitness XDR, and Citrix Workspace.

Microsoft says that the Windows Dev Kit 2023 is available for purchase today for $599 in 8 countries worldwide. These include the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Japan, and China. The company encourages developers to use its App Assurance service to address compatibility issues while porting their applications with Windows Dev Kit 2023.