Microsoft Corp’s next version of the Windows operating system, codenamed Millennium, is likely to be tuned to run on a new range of Easy PC designs that Microsoft and Intel Corp are developing. Millennium, which will use the Windows 9x kernel, due to be released next year, is unlikely to support legacy standards – principally the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus – which is also a key aim of the Easy PC project.
As the name suggests, the Microsoft/Intel project is exploring PC designs that are easier for the consumer to set up and use. This involves removing ISA support for system devices such as disk drives and mice and moving to a Plug and Play and universal serial bus-based (USB) hardware design. Such a move would rid hardware and software developers of the need to support the elderly ISA architecture, which has been generally superseded by the PCI bus, but may mean that Millennium isn’t backwards compatible with older software.
Microsoft is reluctant to release details of Millennium and the Easy PC project. A company spokesperson refused to comment on products in the pipeline. However, she agreed that Millennium and Easy PC were a good fit. Intriguingly, Advanced Micro Devices Inc has already released a PC design based around Easy PC concepts. The design, dubbed the Legacy Free PC, has a curved body and a CD-ROM drive in the front. The system has five USB ports and a modem and Ethernet connection but no PCI, ISA and PS/2 interconnects. A major Korean manufacturer plans to start producing PCs based on the design, according to Asian news reports.á
