September 8, 1997

Windows Terminal OS Readied By Stuart J. Johnston with Bob Francis and Tom Davey ust when PC vendors are getting aggressive again on prices, the network computer wars are about to heat up. The latest version of Microsoft's handheld operating system, Windows CE 2.0, is set to ship this month. The release will add support for Windows Terminals-desktop devices that will compete with NCs-and some hardware vendors are expected to demonstrate terminals based on CE 2.0 at Comdex/Fall in November. That puts first shipments of Windows Terminals on track for the first quarter of next year, just as Microsoft executive VP Steve Ballmer predicted in June at a speech in New York. Microsoft officials have declined to comment on upcoming announcements but say Windows CE 2.0 is on schedule. A white paper on Microsoft's Web site says CE 2.0 will ship this month. Observers say the most likely opportunity for the company to announce CE 2.0's availability will be at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in San Diego on Sept. 23. The new version is larger and more modular so that developers can take better advantage of specific features in the system, say analysts. One major new feature is the client protocol for Microsoft's multiuser NT initiative, code-named Hydra. The NT Server 4.0 portion of Hydra is scheduled to go into beta testing by year's end and slated to ship early next year. With Hydra on the server and CE 2.0 embedded in Windows Terminals, users will be able to work with NT in much the same manner that existing terminal users interact with mainframes and minicomputers. Several hardware vendors-including Network Computing Devices, Siemens-Nixdorf, and Wyse Techno logies-are expected to demonstrate their coming Windows Terminal offerings at Comdex/ Fall in Las Vegas. The machines will mostly sell for $500 to $1,000. "It's a real platform now," says Rob Enderle, a senior analyst at Giga Information Group in Cambridge, Mass. "[CE 2.0] is much closer to what a real operating system does." Other features that will be included in Windows CE 2.0 are support for the Intel x86 and Motorola PowerPC chip architectures, support for Visual Basic scripting and ActiveX objects, inclusion of a Java Virtual Machine, improved LAN connectivity, and support for 24-bit color displays. Return to story " The Great PC Price Drop " Back to News in Review Send Us Your Feedback Top of the Page

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