Print - WinHEC 2004: Microsoft Revises Longhorn Graphics Requirements

Although Microsoft didn't announce general hardware requirements for Longhorn as expected at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2004 trade show this week, company representatives did reveal that the graphics-card requirements for the upcoming system have changed since Microsoft first revealed them at WinHEC 2003. Microsoft also presented details about Longhorn's so-called tiered user experience, which the company calls Aero.

"The Aero user experience is a generational leap over what's available today in Windows XP," Kerry Hammil, a program manager on the Avalon team, said during a graphics session at the show Monday afternoon. "There will be two discrete levels of user experience in Longhorn. As graphics hardware becomes more powerful, the user experience becomes richer in discrete steps."

These levels, or tiers, are currently called Aero and Aero Glass; last year, Microsoft simply referred to them as the Tier 1 and Tier 2 user experiences. The default Aero user experience is built on the low-level Longhorn graphics API called Avalon and will require a DirectX 9-compliant 3-D graphics processor with at least 32MB of RAM and an Intel AGP 4x bus. Aero will require a minimum resolution of 1024 x 768 (XGA), compared with 640 x 480 (VGA) for today's Windows versions. Last year, Microsoft announced DirectX 7 compliance as a baseline for Longhorn, but Hammil defended the change. "By 2006, DirectX 9 will be baseline functionality," she noted, adding that finding DirectX 7 cards in 2 years will be impossible, anyway. "Machines with graphics hardware that doesn't meet this Aero bar won't qualify for the [Designed for] Longhorn logo."

Aero Glass, the higher-end user experience, will be a true superset of Aero and will come with higher hardware requirements. "Aero Glass will provide a beautiful [UI] experience with transition animations. Window frames will be a bit blurry and translucent, making text easier to read. Transparencies and animations will be hallmarks of the Aero Glass user experience, with more modern, high-quality visualizations than with [standard] Aero." Aero Glass will require a DirectX 9-compliant 3-D graphics processor with at least 64MB of RAM, although Microsoft will recommend 128MB to 256MB of RAM.

In addition to the two tiered Avalon-based user experiences, Longhorn will also support a legacy Classic display mode that will resemble the Windows 2000 UI. This mode will support all the non-UI-related Longhorn technologies, enabling Longhorn applications to run in Classic mode. Microsoft is providing this mode for upgrades that don't meet the minimum requirements for Aero and for corporations that would prefer not to retrain users as they migrate to Longhorn.

I'll provide more details about the Longhorn display architecture soon on the SuperSite for Windows . Also stay tuned to the SuperSite this week for more WinHEC 2004 coverage.

uhhh two tiered user experiences because they know ppl with $500 computers aren't getting anywhere near those specs .. and quite frankly... don't give a rat's *** since they can still play The Sims? Gotcha.

What about the other hardware requirements, like processor speed and total RAM, apart from video card.

There's the proof that Microsoft keeps the hardware industry up and running i'd say...

Last year, Microsoft announced DirectX 7 compliance as a baseline for Longhorn, but Hammil defended the change.

DirectX 7 should be more than enough to run 3D within a desktop environment.

"By 2006, DirectX 9 will be baseline functionality," she noted, adding that finding DirectX 7 cards in 2 years will be impossible, anyway.

Since DirectX is backward compatible, I would hope it would still provide DirectX 7 features. Besides, in a 2D desktop environment what on Earth are you going to use in DirectX 9? That's for tyhe latest games.

Aero Glass will require a DirectX 9-compliant 3-D graphics processor with at least 64MB of RAM, although Microsoft will recommend 128MB to 256MB of RAM.

In other words you'll need 512 plus - on a graphics card, just for a desktop environment. What on Earth are the specs going to be for games on top of this thing?

Considering this is two years in the future, these specs are not at all unreasonable. Even on a low end, basic computer this should be pretty maintainable then.

What worries me is that in the past Microsoft have often WAY underestimated system specs. Back in the day, they said that Windows 95 would run on 8MB or RAM, when in fact you couldn't get satisfactory performance from less than 32MB of RAM.

So what about longhorn server in the future. Server should run on 2MB RAM as Microsoft published [although thats for Windows 2000]

My PC spec is: Intel Cleron 2.4ghz, 128MB Ram, 15GB Hardisk, 8MB of Matrox Millenium Display card & internal sound sys. Can i install Wins Longhorn 4051?.

This is hilarious. Microsoft is trying to create what Mac OS X has had for three years -- Quartz. Did you know this PC people? That Apple, once again pioneered this, like everything else. But we all know the PC peenies like Paul Thurrot will claim Microsoft invented it....

Matt, don't be such a narrow minded idiot. Paul has frequently said the current Mac interface is much prettier than the current XP interface. Someone has to come up with the idea first and if it works (which it does) why not use it? What he has said is that the Windows interface is more intuitive, and for Users (not Power Users or Administrators), it is. The reasoning behind Microsoft’s thinking is as follows. 1. Every element of the GUI will be rendered in is entirety, separately. This will stop the white ‘tearing’ you get on top of or underneath ‘not responding’ programs, as the desktop and other UI element are rendered separately. The current Desktop is effectively a single canvas. If the OS can’t write to the canvas because a program on top has frozen, it will appear white. This is called ‘tearing’. 2. When you purchase a Mac, of any sort, you buy Apple hardware and the Apple OS, therefore Apple can match the two as much as they want. Microsoft have realise they have to do the same to get a modern looking GUI, but as most system are build by private company, there are having to spec it’s graphics capabilities separately. There is nothing to moan about really - a new mid range PC now will run the Aero Glass interface now, let alone in two years time. I should also point out that Xerox invented the desktop interface, not Apple. Oh by the way, I don’t work for Microsoft or WinNetMag.com. I am a graphics designer -I use a G5 at work and a G4 at home.

Steve-o is right about Xerox. I even included a link. (http://www.parc.xerox.com/about/history/default.html) Although, most of the workers on that project went to go work for Apple. This means Apple employees stole the idea and knowledge. I am a Mac user the by the way so my opinion is not biased. chrisl@travel-net.com

The world's top 3 suckers: - Mikrosoft; - PC hardware producers; - PC-Windowz users. Regards, TomkOx [MacUser from Poland].