What is it that enables these gadgets to be so powerful, slim and light-weight with such great battery life?
Well, operating system aside, it's all about the processor or CPU - the ARM-based processor to be exact.
So what are ARM-based processor?
An ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) processor is a very compact processor (it is often soldered onto the motherboard) that has a very low operating temperature and uses very little power while doing quite a bit of work (this is my simplified definition).
It means that unlike Intel and AMD power hungry x86 (desktop and laptop) processors, ARM-based processors can be placed in smaller devices with smaller batteries and perform pretty good without having any need for heat-sinks and/or cooling fans or having to be constantly plugged in to a charging source.
It's important to note that up until recently Intel had not shown any big interest in developing ARM-type processors, but all this is changing now - Intel is now determined to be on the inside of these mobile gadgets.
This is what sets Windows 8 RT apart from the other versions - it is designed to run on these types of processors instead of the x86 ones that you'd normally find in laptop and desktop personal computers
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