Longhorn to Branch Out Displays
By the time it is released in 2006, Longhorn may have proven to be the catalyst for new breeds of auxiliary displays. Company officials at the VSLive conference revealed that the concept, which was first made known at the 2004 Windows Hardware Engineering conference, will materialize in time for the first beta build of the OS.
The displays will span a variety of form factors not limited to at-a-glance laptop lid displays, electronic picture frames, PDAs, televisions and other portable devices.
In practice, the concept of auxiliary displays is not a new one. Last February, Paul Allen's Vulcan Inc. offered the public a taste of the paradigm's utility to mobile computing with its "FlipStart" prototype.
Although it never made it to market, the FlipStart was able to conserve both battery life and its user's time with its Low-Power Interactive Display (LID) module. The LID synchronized with applications and displayed information on the outside of the FlipStart so that users were not required to open the device and boot Windows.
Microsoft has subscribed to the same thinking. To this end, it is putting together the bits of an auxiliary display development kit that will be completed prior to Longhorn Beta 1.
Microsoft is working closely with Intel to establish an auxiliary display hardware-reference platform. The platform's specifications call for an ARM processor and 8 to 16 megabytes of RAM to satisfy requirements for display caching. Much like the FlipStart, the devices will routinely "wake up" and synchronize with Windows applications.
Microsoft Watch has reported that auxiliary displays will be equipped with 16- to 24-bit color resolution no matter what form factor.
"Supporting auxiliary displays makes sense for Microsoft. They are really trying to diversify themselves and want to be best of breed in everything," Yankee Group Senior Analyst Laura DiDio told BetaNews. "This is a natural progression for them and they have the R&D dollars to make it work. They've got their fingers in about every pie so this one doesn't surprise me."
Other Longhorn display technologies include its Avalon presentation subsystem. According to Microsoft, Avalon unifies how Windows "creates, displays, manipulates documents, media, and user interfaces." A Community Technical Preview of Avalon is now available to MSDN subscribers and developers.
Microsoft recently announced that it will also make a CTP of its Indigo communications subsystem available by the end of March.