Pelles C forum

Well, why not try writing some ARM64 (RISC) assembly code?

Here is a small example for POASM, displaying a typical "Hello, world" message box:

NULL            equ     0
MB_OK           equ     0
EXIT_SUCCESS    equ     0

                area .rdata, data, readonly

message         dcb     "Hello, Windows on ARM64!", 0
title           dcb     "POASM test", 0

                area .text, code

                export main

                import __imp_ExitProcess
                import __imp_MessageBoxA

main            function

                stp     fp,lr,[sp,#-16]!
                mov     fp,sp

                mov     x0,NULL
                adrp    x1,message
                add     x1,x1,message
                adrp    x2,title
                add     x2,x2,title
                mov     w3,MB_OK
                adrp    x8,__imp_MessageBoxA
                ldr     x8,[x8,__imp_MessageBoxA]
                blr     x8

                mov     w0,EXIT_SUCCESS
                adrp    x8,__imp_ExitProcess
                ldr     x8,[x8,__imp_ExitProcess]
                blr     x8

                ldp     fp,lr,[sp],#16
                ret       

                endfunc

                end

The C version is just a tad shorter:

int main(void) {
  MessageBoxA(NULL, "Hello, Windows on ARM64!", "POASM test", MB_OK);
  ExitProcess(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}


Hi Pelle,

Thanks for the ARM64 example. I don't have a computer with an ARM processor, so not easy to the test sample. Thanks for maintaining Poasm. Yes, the C version is shorter and is looking better.

Quote from: Vortex on March 30, 2026, 09:09:29 PMThanks for the ARM64 example. I don't have a computer with an ARM processor, so not easy to the test sample. Thanks for maintaining Poasm. Yes, the C version is shorter and is looking better.

I have seen some hints on the web that Windows 11 (on X64) may be able to emulate ARM64 code (not just using the weird ARM64EC mode). I can't verify this myself since my only Windows 11 machine right now is a laptop with an ARM64 processor.

I'd really like to be able to do that.  However a brief check came up with this -

"AI Overview
No, standard
x64 Windows 11 cannot directly run ARM64 applications or host an ARM64 virtual machine using native hardware virtualization. Hyper-V on x64 hardware does not support running ARM64 operating systems. To run ARM64 apps, you must use a device powered by an Arm-based processor (such as Windows on ARM or Apple Silicon)."

Sadly,

John Z

Right. Apparently it was the other way around: emulating X86/X64 on ARM. Oh, well...

Qemu for Windows can emulate ARM64, ChatGPT says :

qemu-system-aarch64 \
  -machine virt \
  -cpu cortex-a72 \
  -m 4G \
  -bios QEMU_EFI.fd \
  -drive file=windows_arm.qcow2,if=virtio \
  -device virtio-net-device \
  -netdev user,id=n1

QuoteBut expect trial-and-error with:

Storage drivers
Display (often -device ramfb or virtio-gpu)

Thanks Vortex!

Nice find - https://www.qemu.org/docs/master/system/target-arm.html

"QEMU can emulate both 32-bit and 64-bit Arm CPUs. Use the qemu-system-aarch64 executable to simulate a 64-bit Arm machine. You can use either qemu-system-arm or qemu-system-aarch64 to simulate a 32-bit Arm machine: in general, command lines that work for qemu-system-arm will behave the same when used with qemu-system-aarch64."

Guess Google AI not so much I  ;D

Not sure how hard to set up, but I'll be reading more.  Won't be windows on ARM but command line capability I'm supposing, unless a ARM Windows ISO can be involved.

John Z

Hi John,

Another source to obtain Qemu for Windows :

https://qemu.weilnetz.de/w64/