Posted on Monday, October 27 2008 @ 21:01 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
TG Daily
takes a look at some of the new features of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 operating system. One of the more interesting things is that it will have GPU acceleration, just like Apple's upcoming Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
Windows 7 will build on Vista, it will look like Vista, but it will be better than Vista. Microsoft drops the Vista name and will prepare developers for the new OS: Major new features include multi-touch, new desktop features, Microsoft promotes context-aware apps, performance enhancements and energy efficient software as well as efficient background processes.
The big surprise here, of course, is GPU acceleration – a feature that will be integrated in Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard as well. There are two dedicated tracks (Windows 7: Unlocking the GPU with Direct3D; Windows 7: Writing Your Application to Shine on Modern Graphics Hardware) and we don’t know many details yet, but these two tracks may be among the most interesting at PDC this year. I mentioned before that I truly believe that GPGPU/cGPU acceleration holds the keys to one of the most significant opportunities in software development for decades. If Microsoft is offering this type of support in Windows 7 then Windows users may be in for a big treat.
