intel.microsoft

LAS VEGAS--The unthinkable has happened: the tiny ARM processors that power the world's cell phones will assail the Intel-dominated desktop and server segments--with Microsoft making it possible.

Nvidia's "Project Denver" will build ARM processors for desktops, servers, and supercomputers. Significant on its own, but it takes on a bigger meaning with Microsoft moving its next version of Windows to ARM.

"Microsoft's announcement [Wednesday at CES] that it is bringing Windows to ultra-low power processors like ARM-based CPUs provides the final ingredient needed to enable ARM-based PCs based on Denver," Bill Dally, Nvidia's … Read more

All signs point to the next version of Windows running on ARM, the emerging global silicon standard for smartphones and tablets. But don't get too excited--it won't happen until 2012 at the earliest and just as likely not until 2013.

For now, let's call the next major release from Redmond Windows 8--though I'm hearing that Microsoft will call it something else. More importantly, I'm also hearing that Windows 8 isn't due until the fourth quarter of 2012, at the earliest.

So that means tablets running Windows 8 won't appear until 2013. Microsoft could … Read more

So, what happens to Intel in the age of a version of Windows running on top of ARM chips from companies like Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Apple, Freescale, and Nvidia?

A report today is fueling speculation that Microsoft will bring a more full featured version of Windows to ARM--arguably the most widely used chip architecture in the world. This comes after Microsoft announced in July that it has gotten an architectural license from ARM.

The most obvious impact is that Windows runs on more devices, many of which do not necessarily use Intel processors. The Zune HD is probably the best … Read more

Intel's prototype design for interactive, holographic digital signage continues to make the rounds.

After debuting last week at the CES 2010 show during the keynote address by Intel CEO Paul Otellini, the 7.5-foot-tall multitouch, multiuser Intelligent Digital Signage Concept this week is being demonstrated at the National Retail Federation Convention in New York. In addition, Intel on Tuesday announced that it is working with Microsoft to develop an open-standards platform for digital signage applications.

On-location digital signs based on the technology could change the way consumers find and interact with information at stores, banks, and hotels, Intel said.

In effect, such signs would bring something of an online experience to the brick-and-mortar world. The Intel prototype is designed to let retail customers touch its holographic screen to virtually tour a store, shop for products, learn about sales, read customer reviews, submit their own reviews, and share feedback with family and friends through integration with social networks and cell phones.

Retail outlets could use the digital sign to show realistic maps of each aisle of the store, and then display coupons or sales promotions next to images of different products.

But the sign offers more than just one-way communications. Using built-in cameras and image analysis, the display could determine a consumer's gender, approximate age, the clothes he or she is wearing, the time of day, and other factors to tailor ads and other content specifically to that consumer. By figuring out a person's size, it could show ads only for clothes that would fit.

Of course, advertisers could also use the digital signage to get immediate feedback on how consumers respond to their ads. … Read more

If the Apple tablet emerges as expected, this will be another big device market, following media players and smartphones, that the PC industry cedes to Apple.

The writing is already on the wall already for Microsoft and smartphones, as spelled out in a previous post and as documented in shrinking market share numbers.

That's not to say that Microsoft, Compaq (later Hewlett-Packard), and Intel didn't have a chance. Remember the Compaq iPAQ PDA that debuted way back in 2000, powered by an Intel StrongARM chip running an early version of Windows Mobile?

That device had a lot of … Read more

So the European Union and Microsoft have finally settled their differences and will begin the browser ballot with no less than 12 browsers to choose from. Is this a good thing? Also, Intel is now under the gun from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. What did it do this time? Listen to find out. And Cherrypal is selling a $99 laptop it bills as slow and sufficient. Nice.

FTC formally charges Intel with anti-competitive behavior http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704541004574599791659334798.html?mod=googlenews_wsj … Read more

According to the Office 10 Twitter account, Zune lovers will be happy in June. If that wasn't weird enough, they also warn you not to buy an iPhone or Palm Pre, which is probably standing orders at Microsoft. Also Natali carries knives in her sports bra quite often. Or so we have come to understand.

Report: Intel to join Microsoft in EU antitrust purgatory http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/05/report-eu-readying-to-fine-intel-for-antitrust-violations.ars

Apple freezes Snow Leopard APIs http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/12/0213242

Greece puts … Read more

Select processors from Advanced Micro Devices do not support Windows 7 "XP mode" though, like Intel, the vast majority of shipping processors do support XP mode.

Microsoft describes XP mode on its Web site as follows: "As part of the upcoming Windows 7 Release Candidate milestone, Microsoft will release a beta version of Windows XP Mode, which allows users of Windows 7 Professional and above to launch many older Windows XP productivity applications directly from their Windows 7 desktop. The Windows XP Mode stand-alone feature is specifically designed to help small businesses that are using Windows XP … Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--The popularity of the Netbook caught Intel by surprise--more than once.

Shipments of this category of inexpensive, ultra-light, handy laptops--almost all powered by Intel's Atom processor--are set to hit at least 20 million units this year, about twice the number shipped in 2008, according to IDC. But if an analyst had suggested these numbers to Intel in March of 2008, executives would have dismissed the forecast out of hand--or laughed.

This failure, by many in the industry, to grasp the significance of the Netbook, forced Intel into perpetual catch-up mode at the beginning. "I'm the one who had to explain to our factory--I'm really, really sorry I miscalled the demand," said Noury Al-Khaledy, general manager of Nettop and Netbook Computing at Intel in an interview last week. "And the next month, I didn't quite get it right either," he said.

"I think we under-called how easily people would comprehend how useful the device was," he added. For the record, Asus launched the phenomenon with the Eee PC in late 2007, followed in 2008 by Hewlett-Packard, Acer, and Dell, among others.

Al-Khaledy continued. "I think there was sort of this pent-up desire for an affordable, portable, Internet-access light editing sort of device and many of our customers--with our help--nailed it. They helped us so much."

One of the distinct advantages that Intel Atom-based Netbooks have over other similar devices--such as those based on ARM processors--is Windows. ARM-based devices today don't run Windows XP or Vista--and won't run Windows 7. Intel-based Netbooks can run all of these operating systems and versions of Windows 7 may run as well, or better, than XP on Netbooks.

"People bash (Microsoft) all the time. But then what do you really want to buy?" Al-Khaledy asked. "People really do want Windows...the XP attach rate was really, really good." Though Al-Khaledy praised Asus' initial Eee PC and its Linux operating system, some consumers were disappointed when they found out that it wasn't Windows.

"The Linux thing wasn't clear to people. If you think you're getting Windows and then you get home and it isn't (that's a problem)," he said.

And what impact will Windows 7 have on the Netbook market? Pricing will be critical. Unless Windows 7 is priced aggressively, Al-Khaledy doesn't see it as a catalyst necessarily for a spike in Netbook sales. "I don't see it as a big tipping point. It's all about pricing. If you have to pay $30 more for Windows 7, it might make (consumers) pause. There's just not a lot of margin in the box," he said. "(But) if Microsoft prices Starter and Basic aggressively, why wouldn't you?" … Read more