By Dan Jones
Microsoft Corp and Intel Corp are once again singing the same tune as they roll out operating system code and PC design concepts intended to simplify building and using PCs into the next century. Microsoft has issued a limited developers’ release of Millennium – the next version of its 9x kernel-based consumer operating system. Both companies are collaborating on the PC2001 design guide, which is intended to provide OEMs with a loose blueprint for new PCs design. The guide has incorporated some concepts from the Microsoft and Intel ‘Easy PC’ and ‘Ease of use’ initiatives. And despite the profusion of names and concepts, the end result of these projects is clear-cut – the removal of legacy features from both software and hardware.
In the case of Millennium, this entails Microsoft stripping some of the DOS code out of the OS and pumping up the audio/video support integrated in the system. According to betanews.com, the new OS uses a combined Windows 2000/9x code base with much of the legacy support for the ISA-compliant peripherals removed. Microsoft will also beef up support for online video and music streaming in the operating system.
This dovetails nicely with the hardware aims of Intel’s EasyPC project. Jim Pappas, director of technology initiatives at Intel, agreed that Millenium and EasyPC have a symbiotic relationship. The short-term aim of EasyPC is to strip out the outmoded hardware and replace it with USB and firewire ports. Pappas said that the project aims to reach the consumer that might otherwise want a PC but was too afraid of the technology. The long-term aim of the project is to ensure that a consumer never has to open the box, Pappas said.
Removing the legacy support burden from PCs would reduce costs and Pappas agreed that this was one way that manufacturers may want to go. However, the other aspect of the EasyPC project is the incorporation of design values into the beige box zone. People, Pappas opined, will pay for PCs that reflect their lifestyles. Indeed Intel is intending to show high fashion PC designs in all shapes and colors at the Intel Developers Forum in Palm Springs, California at the end of August. Pappas denied that Intel and its partners were simply following the lead of Apple’s iMac, claiming that the project started before the iMac shipped.
