Sam-R--
If you've been watching them for years, I would respectfully disagree. They
have pulled rugs out from under at the last minute, they have held up
Operating System releases at the last minute, and they could make changes at
the last minute and they could modify those commitments--and they have been
in the process of doing just that over the last two months. I think I'd
stick with death and taxes as the only commitments they have to meet. I'm
not sure, but I suppose from what I've seen on different MSFT news groups
there is a bit of interest on the time table so stay tuned. I like the
date of October 2007 that was posted here by Intel Inside, but it will
probably be prior to then.
BTW Intel Inside if you read this post, did you read the news that MSFT is
getting into the chip architecture business now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 19, 2006
Microsoft Looks Within to Design and Test Chips
By JOHN MARKOFF
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/19/technology/19soft.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
"MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 16 - For more than two decades, Microsoft's
software and Intel's processors were so wedded that the pairing came to be
known as Wintel. But as that computing era wanes, Microsoft is turning to a
new source of chip design: its own labs.
The design effort will initially be split between research labs at the
company's headquarters in Redmond, Wash., and its Silicon Valley campus
here. Tentatively named the Computer Architecture Group, the project
underscores sweeping changes in the industry.
One reason for the effort is that Microsoft needs to begin thinking about
the next-generation design of its Xbox game console, said Charles P.
Thacker, a veteran engineer and Microsoft engineer who will head the Silicon
Valley group. Voice recognition may also be an area where the research could
play a significant role.
"Voice is big," Mr. Thacker said. "You can throw as much technology at it as
you want to."
Microsoft is exploring hardware design now in part because of a new set of
tools that will make it possible to test ideas quickly, he said. The
researchers will employ a system designed by researchers at the University
of California, Berkeley, that makes it possible to reconfigure computer
designs without the cost of making finished chips.
"We are at an inflection point in the industry," he said. "Our friends say
computers are not going to get faster, we're just going to get more of
them."
As shrinking transistor sizes make it possible for designers to put multiple
processors on a single chip, and computing functions are increasingly hidden
in consumer devices, Microsoft faces new challenges and opportunities.
In recent years, the computing model centered on the desktop PC has
increasingly given way to new, more specialized markets like video games and
cellphones. As Microsoft has moved to enter these markets, it has
increasingly designed hardware, software and packaging that are made by
independent contractors but marketed under the Microsoft or Windows brand."
Also check out this essential blog:
http://shellrevealed.com/blogs/shellblog/archive/2006/1
0/09/Features-that-didn_2700_t-make-the-cut.aspx
CH
