Microsoft gets into PC hardware business

The Inquirer ^ | 07-04-2002 | Mike Magee

[JameRetief]

Microsoft gets into PC hardware business

Launches "Dream Machine" with FIC

By Mike Magee: Thursday 04 July 2002, 08:49

INTEL IS NOT GOING TO LIKE this one little bit if it's true.

A report in the Economic News claims that Microsoft and FIC will jointly launch a so–called "Dream PC" which doesn't even use an Intel chip, but instead makes use of a Via C3.

The report claims that the first jointly developed "Dream PC" will be introduced towards the end of this month and that Microsoft will also show quite a few so called "baseline" or cheap machines which run with Via C3 600MHz chips and Windows XP.

FIC, like Via, is a subsidiary of mammoth Taiwanese conglomerate Formosa Plastics.

The report adds that each complete machine will cost between $300 to $400 and are aimed at the low end of the market which doesn't necessarily need processors running at 2GHz and above.

The "Dream Machine" could spell curtains for the traditional Wintel alliance, if the reports are true.

And what with the AMD-Microsoft operating system announcements which we revealed earlier this year, we wonder how Chipzilla will react.

The giant behemoth has been known to go stomping around furiously when firms really get its goat – much like Via did last year by point blank refusing to licence Pentium 4 technology. µ

[dr_who]

Intriguing, but probably true. Not enough killer apps out there to justify buying more powerful hardware. I suppose in the mid 80's, the problem was the reverse... not enough powerful hardware to fuel the creation of "killer apps".

[dr_who]

I wonder if these Taiwanese chips really are a lot slower than the latest Intel ones.

[ContentiousObjector]

The VIA C3 is actually the Centaur C5A and it designed in Austin Texas by Centaur.

It follows a differant design methodology than the Intel and AMD chips, it concentrates on IPC performance instead of FPU performance. infact the VIA C3 or Centaur C5A was never intended to be a desktop processor, but after Cyrix flamed out VIA had little choice but to use the Centaur design for their processor. It was breifly known as the Cyrix III, but after endless bitching from the boys in Texas VIA agreed to rename it the VIA C3

The performance is pretty good, for things like Microsoft Office and the Internet you would never know the differance from an Intel or AMD based system

But for things like games or creative design or video or anything that is FPU intensive the C3 isn't for you.

[goldstategop]

I see this move by Microsoft as an attempt to get into the same market that Lindows is now grabbing a share of --- the low end consumer market served by Walmart. Bill Gates is going mano a mano with Michael Robertson. Whoever can grab the low cost computer share will emerge victorious in the Operating System Wars. Microsoft/FIC vs Lindows/Micron; its hard to see Redmond lining up with a hardware company to woo the Walmart masses if Lindows weren't the newest kid on the block.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Don't know what the difference is when Taiwanese Semiconductor (amongst others) grows the silicon for Intel.

[dr_who]

I see this move by Microsoft as an attempt to get into the same market that Lindows is now grabbing a share of

I see this move by Microsoft as an attempt to keep the market going. As for Lindows, if they actually have a product at this point, much less something that could compete with GEOs, OS/2 Warp, BeOS, AmigaOS, or all those freeware Unix clones, I'd be surprised.

--- the low end consumer market served by Walmart.

Need to locate and visit a Walmart one day and check them out. The fact that anyone would go to a Walmart to buy a computer takes some getting used to. But I like the concept of cheap computers.

Bill Gates is going mano a mano with Michael Robertson. Whoever can grab the low cost computer share will emerge victorious in the Operating System Wars. Microsoft/FIC vs Lindows/Micron

My bet would have to be on Microsoft. Sorry.

; its hard to see Redmond lining up with a hardware company to woo the Walmart masses if Lindows weren't the newest kid on the block.

Hardware can be dirt cheap. Even if Microsoft buys poorly designed extra cheapo hardware from some other manufacturer and slaps the Microsoft label on it. Come to think of it, they probably already do that with other things that they sell.

[dr_who]

Well, then don't worry about it then. I'll ask someone else.

[dr_who]

IPC? Bloody abbreviations. I take it you're talking about integer instruction handling, yes?

[meadsjn]

I hope MS hasn't forgotten the story of IBM and the Micro-channel debacle after they set the standard with the PC-AT.

[The_Reader_David]

I see this as a move to counter the little-observed change in the competitive environment produced by Apple basing Mac OS X on a Unix core. MS realizes that this changes the applications development environment: there are now two software worlds Windows and Unix/OS X/Linux. MS is facing competition from Linux in the Intel-chip hardware universe, but this chould be brushed off as insignificant, were it not for the fact that the same applications development done for Unix will now will minimal effort also be applications development for Macs, Solaris work-stations, and Unix main-frames. Stepping into the hardware business is a move to provide themselves with the vertical-integration advantage which has kept Apple in business (and holding 5-7% of the PC market, and that mostly at the high-end) despite assaults by MS, and the perpetual dire predictions of Apple's demise. Admittedly it is an oblique move to counter the threat. A direct one is quite impossible, though: no Mac user would load a Motorola-processor version of Windows as their primary operating system, nor would Unix-using computer geeks switch (I speak as both).

[Willie Green]

The fact that anyone would go to a Walmart to buy a computer takes some getting used to. But I like the concept of cheap computers.

Hmmmmmm.... you must be too young to remember Packard Bell 386 SX machines.

"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."

[ContentiousObjector]

Yeah, Instructions Per Cycle

[dr_who]

No, I remember staying well away from them.

[dr_who]

RISC?

[mdittmar]

between $300 to $400

$100 to $200 lower than these guys.

Very interesting.

Dell will still win,it's all about service when your talking retail.

[Willie Green]

No, I remember staying well away from them.

Then you should know better than to be wistful about buying 'puters at WallyWorld.

[ContentiousObjector]

That is open for debate, it has some RISC elements in the interger pipeline, it isn't a pure RISC design like you would find in an IBM PowerPC in a Macintosh

[dr_who]

Apple's merely made their OS more robust. Hopefully they'll get a little more market share than the loyal anti-wintel desktop holdouts. Microsoft has just continued the process of merging the "industrial strength" (snigger, snigger) versions of Windows (NT/2000) with their older consumer version. Sun and other Unix vendors are the ones who are feeling real competition from Linux (and others). But the dream of Unix afficianados since the 80's has been to put Unix on the desktop, and the holy grail since the 70's has been to have a free, complete, open source Unix. Two for two ain't bad.

[dr_who]

What?