Nothing like a vague news release to get the tech industry buzzing with speculation.

Microsoft and embedded processor company ARM this morning announced that they have signed a new licensing agreement for the ARM architecture, expanding an existing relationship between the companies -- but not saying precisely what types of products or collaborations would result from the deal.

“Microsoft is an important member of the ARM ecosystem, and has been for many years,” said Mike Muller, the chief technology officer of ARM, in the news release. “With this architecture license, Microsoft will be at the forefront of applying and working with ARM technology in concert with a broad range of businesses addressing multiple application areas.”

“ARM is an important partner for Microsoft and we deliver multiple operating systems on the company’s architecture, most notably Windows Embedded and Windows Phone,” added KD Hallman, a Microsoft general manager, also in the news release. “With closer access to the ARM technology we will be able to enhance our research and development activities for ARM-based products.”

Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet has lots of good speculation on what this could mean. As long as we're speculating, my favorite is the notion that Microsoft could bringing Windows Phone OS to ARM-based tablets and slate devices -- which is notable given the way Apple has grabbed all the attention in the slate market with the iPad, and all the industry hand-wringing over the future of traditional Windows on those types of devices.

On a related note, HP is now saying that the slate device it's developing with Microsoft will be targeted toward enterprise customers. HP appears to be moving more toward Palm's WebOS for future consumer tablets.