Now that Microsoft's Windows 8 is officially out of the bag, we can also confirm that it will be running on ARM-based processors from Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Texas Instruments, and, of course, Intel. 

Qualcomm will be unleashing its next-generation, dual-core "Krait" MSM8960 processor on upcoming Windows 8 devices. The Krait boasts clock speeds of up to 2.5GHz and integrating both 3G and LTE onto a single piece of silicon, CNET reports. Windows 8 has also been demonstrated running on a single-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon.

Meanwhile, NVIDIA showed off a Windows 8 tablet running on the quad-core Kal-El processor. The Kal-El boasts four CPU cores and 12 GPU cores, with five times the performance of the Tegra 2 that's currently used in NVIDIA-powered Android tablets.

Not to be outdone, Texas Instruments unleashed its own ARM-based Windows 8 processor, the 1.8GHz OMAP4470. The SoC is powered by a pair of 1.0GHz ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore engines and two 266MHz ARM Cortex-M3 (multimedia duties). That's paired with a single-core PowerVR SGX544 GPU that supports DirectX, OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenVG 1.1, and OpenCL 1.1 (said to boost graphics performance by 2.5x). 

The OMAP4470 promises an 80 percent increase in web browsing performance and better power usage. The SoC was designed for tablets, netbooks and smartphones running Android, Linux, and Windows 8, and can support up to three HD displays at a resolution of QXGA (2048x1536). 

The 45nm OMAP4470 will begin sampling the second half of the year, with the first devices based on it to start hitting shelves in the first half of 2012.