| WindowsForDevices year-end review: Top hardware/software stories of 2007 |
Jonathan Angel
JANUARY
GATES TOUTS VISTA IN CES KEYNOTE
With the consumer release of Windows Vista set for Jan. 30, Bill Gates unsurprisingly devoted much of his Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote to Vista. Additionally, the presentation highlighted upcoming Xbox 360 IPTV capabilities, and a partnership with Ford to develop voice-activated automotive infotainment technologies. Details
MICROSOFT TO ADD IPTV FUNCTIONALITY TO XBOX 360
Microsoft is integrating its IPTV software platform into the Xbox 360, the company announced this week. By converting the Xbox into an "all-in-one digital entertainment device" that combines IPTV services with next-generation gaming and interactivity, Microsoft will position itself to grab TV set-top marketshare from TiVo. Details
MOBILE 64-BIT CHIPS ARRIVE ON AMD’S EMBEDDED ROADMAP
AMD has added two mobile processors to its AMD64 Longevity Program for embedded products. The news means that AMD’s dual-core Turion 64 X2 Model TL-52 and single-core Mobile AMD Sempron 3500+ will be available for at least five years, targeting thin client and single-board computers, among other embedded applications. Details
MICROSOFT AND FORD GET IN "SYNC"
Ford Motor Company has announced a new factory-installed, in-car communications and entertainment system based on "Microsoft Auto," recently renamed from Windows Mobile for Automotive. Dubbed "Sync," Ford’s new capability will become available later this year in a dozen 2008 vehicles from Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury. Details
FEBRUARY
INTEL FORGES FORWARD WITH 45NM PROCESSOR TECH
Labeling it "one of the biggest advancements in fundamental transistor design," Intel on Jan. 27 said it is utilizing two "dramatically new" materials to build the insulating walls and switching gates for 45nm (nanometer) transistors. The company also said that five early-version 45nm processors are up and running. Details
MICROSOFT UNLEASHES WINDOWS MOBILE 6
Following a surprise early unveiling last week, Microsoft formally rolled out Windows Mobile 6 this week at the 3GSM mobile technology show in Barcelona. Among the key improvements in the platform are new messaging tools, enhanced security, and support for Microsoft Office features "previously available only on PCs," Details
MICROSOFT RELEASES LOW-END EMBEDDED SOFTWARE PLATFORM
Microsoft officially released the .NET Micro Framework Software Development Kit (SDK), this week at the Embedded World conference in Nuremburg, Germany. The new, low-end member of Microsoft’s embedded software lineup extends the company’s reach into high-volume, cost-sensitive devices and subsystems with severely constrained processor and memory resources. Details
WINDOWS XP EMBEDDED "FEATURE PREVIEW 2008" AVAILABLE
Microsoft has released a new Community Technology Preview (CTP) for Windows XP Embedded SP2. "Feature Preview 2008" offers a number of new and updated features to try out, including Media Player 11, Internet Explorer 7, and .NET Framework 3.0, along with some bug fixes. Details
MARCH
MICROSOFT UNVEILS VOIP-ENABLED PHONE PLATFORM
Microsoft last week unveiled a VoIP-enabled phone system software platform based on Windows XP Embedded. "Response Point," currently in beta, supports both IP- and traditional analog-based telephony, targets small businesses, and is expected ship this year in production devices from three vendors. Details
APRIL
VIA UNVEILS FIRST PICO-ITX DESIGN
Chip-maker Via Technologies has revealed details about its "pico-ITX" hardware reference design, and promised to announce its first commercially available mainboard based on the new form-factor "soon." Slightly smaller than the venerable PC/104 standard, pico-ITX represents "the smallest complete x86 mainboard in the industry," Via said. Details
INTEL TIPS BIG PLANS FOR X86 SoCs
Intel’s x86-based SoC (system-on-chip) processor roadmap may be much broader than originally thought, judging by a presentation by Intel Embedded GM Doug Davis at the Embedded Systems Conference this week. Additionally, Intel has shipped its first quad-core processors for embedded applications, and announced an 8-core server platform due in July. Details
AMD AIMS IGP-ENABLED CHIPSETS AT DEVICE MARKET
AMD has launched its first chipsets with integrated graphics processors (IGPs) since acquiring graphics chip vendor ATI last October. The 690G and the 690V have ATI Radeon x1250 IGPs, and target thin clients, POS (point-of-sales) devices, gaming devices, and single-board computers. Details
INTEL LAUNCHES MOBILE DEVICE PROCESSORS
At its Beijing Developer Forum this week, Intel confirmed it is shipping an "ultra mobile" chipset for UMPCs (ultra-mobile PCs) and MIDs (mobile Internet devices). It also claimed to be sampling a second-generation mobile processor based on 45nm silicon and "High-K" metal gate transistor technology. Details
MICROSOFT UPDATES RETAIL-ORIENTED WINDOWS OS
Microsoft today announced an enhanced version of its Windows-based operating system for retail point-of-sales/service environments. Windows Embedded for Point of Service 1.1 Update ("WEPOS 1.1 Update") adds support for the "latest industry standards," streamlines installation of mass storage devices during setup, and boasts enhanced language support. Details
MAY
ROBOTICS STUDIO TAKES CENTER STAGE AT MEDC
Studio software took center stage at MEDC last week. This year’s Sumo Robotics competition featured machines running Robotics Studio CTP 1.5 vying to push each other out of the ring.
Details
"SURFACE COMPUTING" PROMISES NEW UI PARADIGM
Imagine a computer display in your coffee table. Now imagine that you can control and manipulate objects on that display simply by touching and dragging them with your fingers. That is the essence of a futuristic "surface computing" user interface (UI) paradigm revealed this week by Microsoft. Details
FEATURE PHONE PLATFORM STEPS UP TO WINDOWS CE 6.0
Intrinsyc Software has ported its Windows CE-based Soleus feature phone platform to Windows CE 6.0. The company demonstrated a preview of the CE 6.0-based version running on a Marvell PXA270 applications processor at Microsoft’s Mobile and Embedded DevCon (MEDC) in Taiwan this week. Details
JUNE
VIA DEBUTS TINIEST MOTHERBOARD YET
Via CEO Wenchi Chen revealed a business card-sized motherboard billed as the "world’s first industry-standard form-factor for PC/phone convergence," at Computex this week. The "mobile-ITX" board measures 3 x 1.8 inches -— half the size of Via’s "pico-ITX" form-factor —- and runs Linux or Windows XP Embedded. Details
JULY
MICROSOFT ROBOTICS STUDIO TARGETS WINDOWS CE
Microsoft has released an enhanced version of its robotics application development toolkit. Version 1.5 of Microsoft Robotics Studio now allows creation of autonomous robots running Windows CE and Windows Mobile, and also adds support for vision and speech recognition. Details
REMOTE TOOLS FRAMEWORK RELEASED FOR WINDOWS CE
Microsoft has released Remote Tools Framework 1.0, a platform for developing tools that diagnose and test Windows CE- and Mobile-based devices. Thanks to an included shell, users can deploy multiple tools simultaneously to the same device. Details
AUGUST
VISUAL STUDIO BETA AIMS ENHANCEMENTS AT MOBILE DEVS
Microsoft has released a second beta of the next version of its Visual Studio software development environment. Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2, targeted at "early adopters," is said to provide a variety of enhancements for mobile developers. Details
VIA AIMS 1W X86 CPU AT MOBILE, EMBEDDED APPS
Via Technologies has introduced a new ultra-low voltage (ULV) processor aimed at industrial, commercial, and ultra-mobile applications. Touted as the "world’s most power-efficient" x86-compatible CPU, the 500MHz Via Eden ULV processor debuted at an Embedded Systems Conference in Taipei this week. Details
SEPTEMBER
MICROSOFT RELEASES .NET MICRO FRAMEWORK 2.0 SP1
Microsoft has announced the availability of a significant update to its .NET Micro Framework 2.0 software development kit (SDK). Announced in conjunction with this week’s Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in Boston, Service Pack 1 (SP1) is said to feature "new enhancements to build more secure, attractive, innovative, and globalized applications." Details
AMD ADDS SINGLE-CORE ATHLONS TO EMBEDDED PORTFOLIO
AMD has reaffirmed its commitment to the embedded market, announcing two new low-power, single-core processors. Compatible with the company’s AM2 socket, the AMD Athlon 64 processor Models 2000+, 2600+, and 3100+ feature power envelopes of 8, 15, and 25 watts respectively. Details
OCTOBER
TROLLTECH PORTS QT TO WINDOWS CE
Trolltech has unleashed a Windows CE version of Qt, its cross-platform application development framework. Qt/WinCE, made available today as a downloadable technology preview, is scheduled to see its final release "late in Q1 2008." Details
MICROSOFT RELEASES VOIP-ENABLED PHONE SOFTWARE
Microsoft announced that its VoIP-enabled phone system software platform based on Windows XP Embedded has been released to manufacturing. "Response Point" supports both IP- and traditional analog-based telephony and will ship in production devices next month. Details
MICROSOFT PLOTS EMBEDDED OPERATING SYSTEM FUTURES
In his keynote at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) last month, Kevin Dallas, GM of Microsoft’s Windows Embedded unit, tipped some of his group’s future product plans. Included are new versions of Windows CE 6.0 and Windows XP Embedded, plus the arrival of "Windows Vista Embedded." Details
MICROSOFT UNVEILS DEVICE MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE
Microsoft has announced a security management platform for Windows Mobile devices. "System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008" allows administrators to provision and manage smartphones, and lets users access enterprise applications residing behind the firewall.
Details
NOVEMBER
WINDOWS CE WEB SERVER TARGETS EMBEDDED APPS
OpenNETCF Consulting has announced a small-footprint Web server that runs on Windows CE 5.0 and 6.0. "Padarn" provides a subset of Microsoft’s ASP.NET application framework, and can be used to create Web-based front ends for almost any embedded system. Details
WINDOWS GOES ON A DIET FOR MINI-LAPTOPS
Mini-laptops are suddenly in season. After months of anticipation and rumored shipments to Brazil and Mexico, Intel’s ClassMate PC has been sighted "in the wild" by U.S.-based reviewers, and Asus’s much-heralded Eee PC made its debut in the U.S. Details
MICROSOFT STARTS CUSTOMIZING WINDOWS MOBILE
Microsoft has come up with a new way to promote Windows Mobile to device makers and wireless carriers. Members of the Windows Mobile team, both in the U.S. And U.K., will help develop customized user interfaces (Uis) that enable these vendors to differentiate their offerings. Details
MICROSOFT OFFICIALLY RELEASES WINDOWS EMBEDDED CE 6.0 R2
Microsoft has officially launched "Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2" at the Embedded Technology Conference 2007 in Yokohama, Japan. Microsoft’s announcements included not only a laundry list of new Windows CE features and enhancements, but also "Spark," an initiative designed to cut the cost of CE development for hobbyists and academics. Details
QUALCOMM UNVEILS 1 GHZ MOBILE PHONE PROCESSORS
Qualcomm has unveiled the first two products in its "Snapdragon" family of chipsets aimed at next-generation mobile phones. The dual-core QSD8250/8650 chipsets clock to 1 Ghz, include a "universal modem" claimed to support "all 2G and 3G mobile broadband standards," and are being demonstrated running Windows CE- and Linux-based Oses. Details
DECEMBER
MICROSOFT OFFERS SNEAK PEAK AT WINDOWS MOBILE UPGRADE
Microsoft has demonstrated the next version of Windows Mobile and scheduled its release for the first quarter of next year. The product -- likely to be called Windows Mobile 6.1 or Windows Mobile 6 Second Edition -- was shown behind closed doors yesterday at a Microsoft-sponsored event in Amsterdam. Details
(Click here for further information)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
news feed