Nvidia to develop PC processors

With the announcement that Microsoft is going to break out from the Wintel and support ARM, big changes in the make up of the PC as we know it would change. Since the time in eighties the PC was released, it has been the x86 processors and the Windows operating systems. Only players in the processor space were the AMD and to some extent the VIA technologies. With MS support for another very well established architecture like the ARM, there is bound to be changes in the space. Similar moves are happening to get additional players into the mobile space where the ARM architecture is  strong. The competition in both space could only do good for consumers!! Let's watch and see.
Nvidia to develop PC processors

Wintel No More!!

 The long time partners are certainly looking around. Microsoft announced at the latest CES, this Jan, that it would release a version of Windows on ARM series processors.Other half of the partnership was busy showing off devices that use the 2nd generation core architecture processors (aka Sandy Bridge). Intel was busy promoting all kinds of devices that ran Android and Meego (Intel+Nokia promoted, Linux derivative). The devices included Google Smart TVs, set-top boxes from Boxee and Logitech, and a raft of tablets, of course. Well, the partnership has not exactly broken down, but both partners are playing the field and trying to find opportrunities in this changing marketplace.
Is the Microsoft-Intel marriage finally over? 

Windows 7 Tablet PC in Early 2011

There's a rush for tablets. It was only a question of time before somebody was going to use Windows 7 on it. Android looks like a hands down winner in Tablets beside the Apple operating system. It will be interesting to see how it fares in this segment. Beyond the mainstream Wintel platforms Windows have not made much of a dent so far. Let's watch!

IN MEDIA Announces $399 Windows 7 Tablet PC, Shipping Early 2011

There's a New Species Evolving in PC Space Right Before our Eyes!

These evolutionary changes were happening for sometime now. The classic Wintel (Window + Intel) species have ruled the PC landscape for quite some time now. I am assuming the laptop to be a simple variant of the same PC model. Real change came with the introduction of the netbook. While the OS remained the Windows predominantly, there was a new processor, the Intel Atom. But it was still WinTel. It was sufficiently different variant of the PC. It was designed to be lower powered, meant for the surfing, mail and such Internet based applications in a very convenient, highly portable format.

Suddenly, there is a lot of activity in the Tablet format. Not that the species evolved just now. It has been around for some time.There were periodic attempts at  creating a tablet that will catch the fancy of users. The scene fairly exploded recently with the coming out of the iPad. Just today I read a report it has sold a million pieces in the 28 days it has been selling. There are many tablets in the works. Here are some examples. As with any evolutionary situation, some tablets are getting killed too! Microsoft seems to have killed its version for the tablet space. So did HP apparently, they killed the "slate" model they were readying for the market. Netbook sales seem to have flattened. So is tablet the next avatar of the personal computer. looks like hat. I personally think that's what's going to to happen. Let's see!

ASP, SaaS and Cloud Computing

Just before the dotcom bust many web businesses came up with this Application Service Provider model. Idea was to take the hassle of keeping the software updated out of the users hands and bring the advantage of use & pay to the end users. That looked like a pretty neat model. However there was quite a bit of resistance on the part of the end users about sending the corporate data onto somebody else's servers. Then came the bust and everybody forgot about it.

In the recent past, it made a come back as Software as a Service (SaaS) avatar. Selling points are the same, advantages/disadvantages are thye same in fact the complete model is the same. It's gaining currency alright. There are several examples already, some of them are quite successful too.

From there the next extension is a small step. What if just do everything on the cloud( the internet cloud) that we do on a PC ! It's something Google would love to do, the WinTel combine loses all the hold! Google has a infrastructure that can serve the model easily. Even Microsoft has visions of it. So is it coming? It definitely is. Questions are when will it become viable! How much of the computing will get done on the cloud versus the desktop/laptop!

It ceratinly feels natural, we already store a lot of things on the cloud and this will be truly convenient. All you need is a device that can provide you network access and a keyboard!(or some other input/gesture device and a display. The concern about data priovacy remains. Let's see how that unflods over time.