Microsoft Introduces Windows 8 at CES 2011 with Support for System-on-a-Chip Architectures
It’s important to underline from the get go that neither Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer nor Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft have actually used the “Windows 8” moniker.
Instead, they both referred to the next version of Windows, and the fact of the matter is that the actual brand for Windows 7’s successor is not yet decided.
However, Windows 8 has become somewhat of the de facto label for Windows vNext, and its usage is already widespread, so we might as well go with it.
Just ahead of Ballmer’s opening keynote address at CES 2011, the Redmond company provided the first demonstration of Windows 8, the first time ever that the software giant has done it.
Let’s just hope that Microsoft is gearing up to say more and more about the forthcoming major iteration of the Windows client in the future. It’s about time, by any accounts.
Windows 8’s first public appearance was all about platform support and not much of anything else.
Both Sinofsky and Ballmer stressed support for System on a Chip (SoC) architectures with the next version of Windows. And yes, this does mean that Windows 8 will play nice with ARM-based systems.
“With today’s announcement, we’re showing the flexibility and resiliency of Windows through the power of software and a commitment to world-class engineering. We continue to evolve Windows to deliver the functionality customers demand across the widest variety of hardware platforms and form factors,” Sinofsky said.
Chip makers such as NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments will be working closely with the Redmond company in order to offer for the first time ever ARM-based designs for the Windows client.
At the same time, the software giant stresses its continued support for existing architectures, with the promise that its partners will deliver the widest possible set of devices, making sure that customers have something they don’t from rivals, choice.
Both Intel and AMD are hard at work pushing x86 platforms forward, while also focusing on new low-power systems and new designs including the 2nd Generation Intel Core and AMD’s Fusion accelerated processing units (APUs).
“At today’s announcement, Microsoft demonstrated the next version of Windows running on new SoC platforms from Intel running on x86 architecture and from NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments on ARM architecture.
“The technology demonstration included Windows client support across a range of scenarios, such as hardware-accelerated graphics and media playback, hardware-accelerated Web browsing with the latest Microsoft Internet Explorer, USB device support, printing and other features customers have come to expect from their computing experience.
“Microsoft Office running natively on ARM was also shown as a demonstration of the potential of Windows platform capabilities on ARM architecture,” Microsoft revealed.
source: http://news.softpedia.com
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