Windows Hardware Engineering Conference WinHEC '98 begins this Wednesday. Digital video, Windows CE, and settops are big topics. Here's the home page:
microsoft.com
<<New sessions announced:
Multimedia and the Internet
What's New at WHQL?
Other the topics to be covered at WinHEC 98 are:
Digital TV and other consumer technologies
Multimedia and 3-D
Moving Windows NT to the consumer space
Designing for the new low-cost market segment
Moving beyond the legacy architecture >>
Here's a description of the Sessions at WinHEC '98:
microsoft.com
A sampling of the sessions (don't miss the last one):
<<PC Hardware Design Trends - Choices Facing System Designers
Michael Slater, Principal Analyst, MDR/Microprocessor Report
This presentation reviews the latest changes and trends in system architecture, system design, component choices,
and cost. Michael Slater will discuss how these changes and trends will affect both your system design and your
business decisions. Topics include microprocessor technology, multimedia acceleration, memory trends, and
peripheral interfaces.
Multimedia Architecture and Futures
Jay Torborg, Director, Windows Multimedia, Microsoft Corporation
This session presents the latest multimedia architecture for Windows and Windows NT, focusing on opportunities for
the hardware community. We will look at the next two years of planned enhancements to Microsoft DirectXr,
including the Fahrenheit initiative. You'll learn how to build the best components and systems for Microsoft
Direct3Dr, DirectMusicT, DVD playback, multimedia web browsing and more.
Intel Hardware Directions - Roadmaps and Initiatives
Mike Aymar, Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Products Group,
Intel Corporation
This presentation will explore changes in computing architectures and configurations to serve the needs of large and
small businesses and consumers. Pat Gelsinger will describe Intel's CPU, chip set, and platform roadmaps for the
next several years. Key technical challenges facing system designers will also be covered including increasing
system performance, using the CPU to enhance visual functions, engineering systems so that they enable increased
systems management, and building set-top computing devices. Pat will highlight some solutions to these challenges
via demonstrations of exciting new software applications.
Multimedia and the Internet
G. Eric Engstrom, General Manager, Internet Multimedia, Microsoft Corporation
The volume of Internet content is growing exponentially, and the multimedia capabilities of PCs are advancing rapidly.
This session will describe Microsoft initiatives to enhance the Internet experience by fully using PC multimedia
capabilities. Details will be provided on Internet client technology that will utilize advanced hardware such as AGP
memory, Direct3D hardware acceleration, and others.
Designing Windows Platforms for Low-Cost Markets
This forum will discuss a baseline Windows feature set and performance requirements in the context of industry
innovations in low-cost Windows platforms. The focus will be on PC designs running Windows and Windows NT.
Industry innovators will discuss various architectural solutions, trading off integrated vs. traditional chipset vs. hybrid
(media processor) approaches. The forum will address cost-tradeoffs for MHz vs. RAM vs. cache vs. software
technologies. This forum will teach you how to deliver more features and performance in a platform that can satisfy
end users while driving the bill of materials down.
Connectivity and Multimedia Networking
Between the Internet and digital convergence, the industry is presented with tremendous challenges and opportunities
for end-to-end network deployment for multimedia communications. This session will discuss the scalable,
standards-based infrastructures that must be built for rich content delivery to home, business and public networks.
Details will be presented on how the new media types for both connection-oriented (WAN) and connectionless (LAN)
communications will be supported in the upcoming Windows releases. Included is a detailed discussion on how to
build hardware and software components for audio and video streaming that plug into WDM streaming model and
DirectShowT for kernel or user mode and hardware-accelerated streaming. The forum concludes with a presentation
on TAPI 3.0, which delivers the APIs for unified call control and media streaming to integrate the numerous services
involved in multimedia communications, from line interfaces and stream types to directory services to media codecs
and terminals.
DVD and Digital TV: MPEG Reception, Decoding and Display Quality
The PC is fast becoming a highly viable primary viewing surface for moving pictures. This requires a paradigm shift -
PCs are becoming television sets and vice versa. Whether delivered over the airwaves, on a DVD disc, across cable,
on the Internet, or from a satellite, moving pictures are essentially television. More often, these signals are digital,
with MPEG at the core of each. This forum outlines the digital television strategy at Microsoft from a technical
perspective, with insights into the current and future hardware engineering issues facing the PC industry. Speakers
will cover the acquisition and decoding of MPEG signals on the PC and ways in which the PC can add value by
making video playback look as great as its authors intended. |
