What Is an ARM Desktop PC?
An ARM desktop PC is a complete desktop workstation built around an ARM-architecture system-on-chip (SoC) instead of the x86-64 processors from Intel or AMD. The processor uses ARM Cortex-A cores — typically four to eight of them — integrated with a GPU, memory controller, display controller and I/O on a single die. Because ARM cores are designed first for efficiency, a typical ARM desktop draws roughly 5–25 W under load, which means many designs can be cooled passively, with no fan, no dust ingress and no moving part to wear out.
These machines boot Linux distributions, Android, or Windows on ARM, and they are usually shipped as compact mini PCs, thin clients or all-in-one units. Storage is most often eMMC or an M.2 SATA/NVMe SSD,
