Bill Gates promises a lot of cool stuff at this year’s Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle. He shows what Microsoft will be doing and where they are going in the coming years.
One of the biggest stories will be Microsoft support of the 64-bit processors. The technology has been around for over a year with AMD being able to build them and Intel having them sometime this year but computer manufacturers have steered away from them, as there’s been no support from software companies. That should change now.
Computers currently use a 32-bit configuration and this should double the size of paths used for moving information in the computer and should increase efficiency a great deal. The 3D game applications alone will be awesome. It will also improve people’s ability to do video, edit photos and tons of others applications.
Cost of these is anticipated to be basically the same and experts foresee this being the primary processor in just a couple of years.
Another big discussion will involve Microsoft’s next version of Windows. Something they’re currently calling Longhorn and are due out sometime near the end of 2006. The primary purpose of the conference will be to bring manufacturers up to speed on this so they can begin developing products utilizing the new OS.
With over 500 companies and 42 countries being represented at this conference, it promises to be a big event.
One of the most talked about toys is the new postcard size PC. The little machine will have a 6-inch screen and weight about a pound. It has a 6-inch screen and is as thick as 10 sheets of paper.
All in all this should provide for an exciting conference, which Microsoft needs in light of heavy competition from Linux and a number of recent innovations in the field
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
