New Windows Arm64 Hosted Runners for GitHub Actions Accelerates Developer Workflows
Over the past year, we have been working closely with GitHub to make life easier for developers building on Arm. From GitHub’s Arm-hosted runners that are revolutionizing application development and deployment, to the recent Arm Extension for GitHub Copilot that is simplifying and accelerating migration to Arm-based servers, our joint efforts are empowering developers to build faster, smarter, and more efficiently on Arm.
Today, we’re announcing the next milestone in that journey: Windows Arm64 hosted runners are now available for GitHub Actions, bringing native CI/CD support for Arm64 Windows applications – no emulation, no workarounds, just seamless automation built for the future of Windows development. This adds to the ever-growing momentum and popularity with the Windows on Arm platform.
Expanding innovation with familiar CI/CD pipelines
Windows Arm64 hosted runners for GitHub Actions provide developers with access to familiar CI/CD pipelines regardless of the architecture, enabling them to seamlessly incorporate Windows on Arm targets into their developer workflows. This leads to consistent building and testing across different architectures for greater compatibility and reliability, as well as reduced manual effort.
This is a significant development for the open-source community. Through enabling familiar CI/ CD pipelines on different architectures, we are unlocking innovation across open source projects, such as Python, CMake and Node, with contributors now able to effortlessly add Arm-native support. In fact, this could lead to an Arm-native version of Python being available soon.
As mentioned in this Microsoft blog, through the new image release, Windows Arm64 hosted runners are available for free in public repositories in GitHub. This is helping to support open innovation and collaboration across the open-source community.
“At Microsoft, we have consistently heard from our partners in the Windows on Arm ecosystem about the need for robust CI/CD support, particularly through GitHub’s Arm runners. So I am thrilled to see GitHub now offering this capability for free in public repositories in GitHub, this will significantly ease the development and deployment processes for open source projects and is a big step forward in empowering developers across the Windows on Arm ecosystem.” – Jamshed Damkewala, Principal Manager, TPM, Microsoft.
Lowest cost Windows runner for Enterprises
For Enterprises, this represents the lowest cost Windows runner for GitHub Actions available today. Leading applications including Adobe Photoshop, Chrome, Dropbox, Firefox, Microsoft Office, Spotify and Visual Studio have all released native Arm builds over the past few years. Windows Arm64 hosted runners for GitHub Actions provide further opportunities for more companies to build Arm-native versions of their applications and unlock greater performance. For example, bringing Arm-native support to Spotify’s Windows application improved the startup time by up to 10x, while for Chrome the application responsiveness was up to 3x faster than the emulated x86 version.
Enabling powerful AI capabilities
Through Arm-native runners for GitHub Actions, developers can build and deploy powerful generative AI applications at the edge using frameworks such as PyTorch and llama.cpp on Arm. With the growing expansion and availability of AI features across PC devices, these capabilities are particularly relevant to Windows developers looking to target Windows on Arm devices with AI-based applications. Windows developers can utilize the complete CI/CD pipeline – featuring GitHub Actions, Arm Runners, and the Arm extension for GitHub Copilot – for free, bringing AI applications to Windows on Arm faster.
Growing Windows on Arm momentum
The availability of Windows Arm64 hosted runners for GitHub Actions is yet more evidence of the outstanding momentum we’re seeing across the Windows on Arm ecosystem. It gives Windows developers the tools to create seamless Arm-native builds and deliver enhanced application performance on the Windows on Arm platform.
If you’re a Windows developer looking to add Arm-native support, then I recommend experimenting with the Windows Arm64 hosted runners for GitHub Actions, so you can see the true benefits for yourself.
Stay tuned for more insights and resources from Arm and our developer ecosystem that will explore how developers and the open source community can effectively utilize Windows Arm64 hosted runners for GitHub Actions.
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