Electronics Weekly Electronics Design & Components Tech News
The argument for doing this is said to be that it will limit tablet variations and speed market entry for Windows-based tablets.
In addition to being able to design an IC for one tablet design, a chip-maker will also be allowed to make the IC for one notebook design.
The ‘incentives’ are said to include techniques for making the tablet run faster and lower prices for Windows 8 licences.
Acer’s CEO told Bloomberg that chip-makers and PC companies found it “all very troublesome” and accused Microsoft of trying to be too controlling.
Chip-makers can ignore the Microsoft programme but risk having their chips rendered less effective than Microsoft-blessed designs.
The incentives programme only applies to mobile computers, not desktops.
It seems an outrageous proposal and it will be interesting to see just how many chip-makers are sufficiently confident to give Microsoft the finger.
Thanks, cheese, you’re right – I missed that about Honeycomb. It’s all getting a bit sinister.
Hmm David, did you miss the juice on Google’s Honeycomb? The tablet version of Android is *not* open source and Google is tight-lipped about the reasons. Yes, we know the oft-quoted fragmentation story, but no one knows if there is more behind this ? OS fragmentation seems to be acceptable in the (far bigger) mobile world, so why should it suddenly become an issue for tablets? This might not be an attempt to exercise direct control the chip makers, but the OEMs sure have to kneel down at the doors of Googleplex…