At the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference

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.

Comments

Can't wait for...

[toupsie]

...how the PC industry is going to take Apple's styling, innovations and designs and incorporate them into Windows hardware. I guess its better late than never...

3d vs. 2d

[room101]

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.

A single calcified tear...

[dryueh]

The sad thing is that with Microsoft's recent anti-trust woes, company execs just don't have that same pep, and arrogance of the past. They've become almost too nice and friendly.

Yeah...my thoughts exactly.

.....too nice and friendly; poor guys.

Killer App?

[DickPhallus]

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?

Re:Killer App?

[4of12]

Well, apart from the underlying sentiment against commoditization that was mentioned in Tom's review of WinHEC that will impede the rollout of the next killer app, there are a few things that come to mind.

• Smaller, quieter PCs that don't make a SOHO look like a machine room. I've got a 60 lb monitor sitting on my desk next to a noisy midtower case. If I could replace it with an LCD at equivalent resolution and a Tranmeta like OQO driving it I'd pay for such an upgrade.
• Greater telephony integration. If I could plug phones, fax machines into RJ11 slots into the computer and use cheap easy software for voicemail, for automatically calling out, forwarding messages to my work number, etc.
• Wireless networking to conventional Consumer Electronic devices such as TVs, PVRs, FM stereo receivers, CD players, portable MP3 players, etc.

I know that with enough money and with specialized Knerdly Knowledge it is possible to build systems to do some of these things even today, but what's needed is for it to be cheap and convenient for the average Joe.

It could be that way if all the major players weren't so worried about protecting their existing revenue streams - I suspect it will be necessary for new companies to provide these innovations. From the gist of the conference, you can tell that MS and the other attendees are not entirely unaware of what people would like to have.

Berlin

[Anonymous Coward]

The article mentions that the entire desktop will be made in vector graphics. That was mentioned several years ago, and, there is a (slowly developing) project for Linux named Berlin which also is a vector based desktop.

http://www.berlin-consortium.org/

Hopefully that will pace up!

Re:what' I'd rather see...

[OwnedByTwoCats]

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.

Re:3d being used more on the non-gamer desktop? Wh

[Rogerborg]

• some games can be played just fine on a 2 MX

"Some"? Holy heck, welcome to the problem. I've just built a machine for my brother. An XP 1700+, 256Mb of DDR 2100 and a 64Mb GeForce 2 MX 400 with TV out. We debated hardest on the card. He wanted to go for a GeForce 3 TI to future proof himself. Here's how my reasoning went:

• The 3 TI costs 2.5 x the price of the 2 MX.
• Either card will push images to his (expensive) TV or (cheap) monitor as fast as it can take them for any current game.
• When games come out that overstretch the 2 MX, what's the price on the 3 TI going to be? Probably about the same as the 2 MX today. By waiting a year, buying the 3 TI and binning (or donating to a needy brother, ahem) the 2 MX, he actually saves himself money. At no point will he be running a clunky game.

Logic prevailed. Oh, he still wanted the 3 TI, because game mags say it can run at a squillion fps @ 1600x1200x32, but we did manage to establish that the noticable benefit would be zero, because he doesn't have a monitor that can handle that.

I'd advise anyone else thinking of buying a high end graphics card to do this calculation. Unless you've got a 1600x1200 @ 80fps monitor, what the heck do you need a GeForce 3 or 4 TI for? Don't spend money "future proofing": all you're doing is paying a premium on hardware that will be a lot cheaper when you do find yourself needing it.