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At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference

Posted by michael on from the nuts-and-bolts dept.

downix writes "At Toms Hardware they're running an article where they discuss the next-generation Windows graphics system. The big part of the scoop, it's being done via DirectX. Have to validate those 2Ghz CPU's and GPU's that need their own nuclear power plant to run somehow." Some other interesting things there - quiet PCs, more about the Oqo, etc.

16 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. what' I'd rather see... by morgajel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'd rather see the load being taken off the power supply. I mean, graphics are nice, but as Michael alludes to, it's gonna take a friggin nuclear power plant to supply the juice- I'd rather see the hardware focusing on lower power consumption. you know, perfect what they got before moving to the next step. Now that I live off campus, I see how much juice my machines run, and well, 300watt powersupplies suck for electric bills.

    --
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    1. Re:what' I'd rather see... by OwnedByTwoCats · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You slipped a couple of decimal places. 10 cents per kwh, not .10 cents. So burning 300 watts of electricity costs $21.60 per month, not $0.22.

    2. Re:what' I'd rather see... by pmz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, absolutely. Running computers really is expensive over a long period of time.

      300 watts is more than the typical computer really uses. 60 to 100 watts continuous is more realistic judging from my UPS data output. Even then, $84/year is not trivial (this is the cost of a good component upgrade, these days).

      There are reasons why initiatives like Energy Star exist. World-wide, I would bet the equivalent of an entire power plant output is devoted just to keeping our computers idle. It is easily argued that this is lots of money and other resources going straight down the commode.

      What portion of California's recent energy crisis was due to tens of thousands of computers running unused?

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      Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
  2. 3d vs. 2d by room101 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Graphics hardware gets to power the Windows shell, and compositing is going to be the big deal. Windows will be treated like surfaces, as opposed to rectangular blocks of bits, as they are now. Everything, in effect, is a texture. GPUs certainly know how to move textures around, and manipulate them, and work with them. Longhorn puts the pressure on the 3D engines of GPUs, and Microsoft is exploring minimum hardware requirements and standards for OEMs to aim for.

    If windows are textures, it seems like it will be pretty difficult to get perfect 1-to-1 mapping of pixels via a graphics gpu. Right now, the only thing that is a big deal is "jaggies", but noone expects a perfect image of textures. I know part of this is the game itself, but it is very hard to make textures fit exactly how you want them to.

    Sounds neat tho, if they can pull it off. Middle of the next decade indeed.

    --
    room101 -- how much can you stand before they break you?
    (they always break you eventually)
  3. DirectX by First_In_Hell · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Lets give DirectX a break. I know that computers running apps for it are completely decked out, but look at the graphics for christ's sake! With all of the enhancements that have been made between the hardware companies (ATI, NVIDIA) in conjunction with M$ (dx 8.1 enhancements) we are seeing some kick ass games, delivered in a relatively fast time due to a universal API. I think it is a good thing.

    -Mod me up, I need the karma!!

  4. Cooling towers by DickPhallus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Have to validate those 2Ghz CPU's and GPU's that need their own nuclear power plant to run somehow."

    Ya, and they can use the cooling towers to cool those bad boys too!

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    Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch.
  5. Killer App? by DickPhallus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Personally, I see little driving the next generation windows boxes. I mean seriously, most computers that are 3 years old will do most things the average person could ever want. It'll burn CDs, play DVDs, read email, do word processing, email, blah blah blah...

    What's next to drive people to upgrading? Will the game market be enough to drive the market?

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    Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch.
    1. Re:Killer App? by mpsmps · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If Microsoft accomplishes its goal (according to the article) and manages to move gaming off the PC, then there will be much less incentive to upgrade PCs. I'll bet the PC manufactuers are going nuts about this behind the scenes. Perhaps Microsoft is taking revenge on the PC manufacturers for not supporting MS in the antitrust trial.

    2. Re:Killer App? by Stiletto · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There's no way video editing will drive anything. How many people do you know _that are not geeks_ who want any kind of video editing, let alone "quality" video editing?

      Video editing will always be a niche app, because the raw output from cameras is good enough for 99% of the people out there, who only want to film weddings and their kid's birthday parties.

    3. Re:Killer App? by burts_here · · Score: 3, Insightful
      the same killer app that has been upgrading pc for the last ten years, bloatware.

      --
      Burt "Out of my mind back in 5 minutes"
    4. Re:Killer App? by catseye · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Boy, I hope you're not in charge of forecasting at your place of employment.

      As a Mac user (although not a zealot -- I'll use anything that helps me get my work done... Linux, Win, etc.) I'm always interested in what encourages people to switch platforms, especially those people who have been entrenched in their current selection for many years.

      Friends and co-workers who I would have never predicted would buy a Mac are asking my advice on iMacs and the like (and buying them) specifically due to Apple's push into consumer-class DV editing. iMovie, iDVD and DVD burners *are* selling computers, hilariously enough. I never realized how many people own little DV camcorders, even among my friends.

      Ironically, as a geek, I really don't see the appeal. But especially for families with small children, video editing really may be the killer app of the next 10 years.

      -A.

      --
      What did the walrus say to the penguin? "No soap, radio."
  6. Transparancy by fraggleyid · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As Pratchett said (in The Truth), do they mean transparant as in you can see through to their motives or transparant as in you can't see their motives at all.

  7. oooh oQo by moonbender · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Not to repeat what was said in the slashdot thread to it, but man does the oQo look sweet. I really hope they can pull this off, this looks like the perfect eBook reader, to start with. Too bad games won't run well on it, though I'm sure older ones will work great - GBA emulation on a oQo sounds like another sweet idea. I pray it's not vaporware.

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    Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
  8. Re:more than 8bpp! by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Professional" level is, as I recall, 48 bits. It's not the colours, it's the math. John Carmack explains it much better than I; perhaps he will. :-)

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    Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
  9. Colors Fidelity by Reverberant · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We all know that the colors you see on your monitor don't exactly end up being the same as the colors you get on your inkjet printer, or on your LCD, or in real life.

    Why is it gonna take MS 3 more years to implement what Apple did 10 years ago?

    (Yeah, I know it's not quite the same thing, but MS still hasn't given us a simple OS-level color matching system!)

  10. Re:Can't wait for... by piznut · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wow. So you mean MacOS is leveraging the GPU in your video card to draw the windows on your screen as 3d surfaces? And here I thought it was just alpha transparencies. Get a clue, jackass. The real world does not revolve around apple. What MS is going to be delivering in longhorn will be leaps and bounds what what you cockjockeys are using.